LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Cliap Copyriglit M. 

8helf\L C__5:/d 1 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



LIVING FOUNTAINS 



OR 



BROKEN CISTERNS 



An 

Educational Problem for 
Protestants 



*'My people have committed two evils; they 

have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and 

hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that 

can hold no water." Jer. 2 : 13. 



By E. a. SUTHERLAND 
President of Battle Creek College 



REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING CO, 

BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN 
1900 



^31 1 

JUN 16 1900 

2nd Copy l>f »»*«i^'» In 

SEP 1 1900 



kjG S^i 



Copyright, 1900, 
By E. a. Sutherland 



74005 



PREFACE 



There are few books which treat of the history 
of education, and fewer which attempt to show the 
part that the educational work has ever borne in 
the upbuilding of nations. That religion is insep- 
arably connected with, and upheld by, the system 
of education maintained by its advocates, has been 
recognized by many historians in a casual way; 
but, to the author's knowledge, no one has 
hitherto made this thought the subject of a 
volume. 

In teaching the history of education and the 
growth of Protestantism, the close relationship 
ever existing between the latter and true methods 
of education led to a careful study of the educa- 
tional system of the nations of the earth, espe- 
cially of those nations which have exerted a 
lasting influence upon the world's history. The 
present volume is the result of that study. 

D 'Aubigne says that in the Reformation * * the 
school was early placed beside the church; and 

3 



4 PREFACE 

these two great institutions, so powerful to regen- 
erate the nations, were equally reanimated by it. 
It was by a close alliance with learning that the 
Reformation entered into the world. " 

True education, Protestantism, and republic- 
anism form a threefold union which defies the 
powers of earth to overthrow; but to-day the 
Protestant churches are growing weak, and the 
boasted freedom of America's democracy is being 
exchanged for monarchical principles of govern- 
ment. 

This weakness is rightly attributed by some to 
the want of proper education. The same cause 
of degeneracy would doubtless be assigned by 
many others, were effects traced to their source. 

The author has attempted, by a generous use 
of historical quotations, to so arrange facts that 
the reader will see that the hope of Protes- 
tantism and the hope of republicanism lies in 
the proper education of the youth; and that this 
true education is found in the principles deliv- 
ered by Jehovah to his chosen people, the Jews; 
that it was afterward more fully demonstrated by 
the Master Teacher, Christ; that the Reformation 
witnessed a revival of these principles; and that 



meface § 

Protestants to-day, if true to their faith, will edu- 
cate their children in accordance with these same 
principles. 

Due credit is given to the authors quoted, a 
list of whose names appears at the end of the 
volume. A complete index * renders this work 
easy of reference. e. a. s. 



CONTENTS 



Chapter Paob 

I God the Source of Wisdom . , 9 

II The Heavenly School . . . -15 

III The Edenic School .... 22 

IV The History of Fifteen Centuries . 42 
V The School of Abraham ... 54 

VI Education in Israel . , . .68 
VII The, Educational System of the Pagan 

World ....... 92 

VIII Christ the Educator of Educators . 117 

IX Education in the Early Church . -139 

X The Papacy — An Educational Problem 156 

XI Education of the Middle Ages . . 184 

XII The Sixteenth-Century Reformation an 

Educational Reform . . . .214 

XIII The Reaction after the Educational 

Reformation . . . . .248 

XIV America and the Educational Problem 288 
XV America and the Educational Problem 

(Continued) . . . . .316 

XVI Christian Education .... 339 

XVII Christian Education (Continued) . 380 

7 



INTRODUCTORY: GOD THE SOURCE 
OF WISDOM 

** Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a 
place for gold where they fine it. Iron is taken 
out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the 
stone. ... As for the earth, out of it cometh 
bread; and under it is turned up as it were fire. 
The stones of it are the place of sapphires; and 
it hath dust of gold. There is a path which no 
fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath 
not seen. The lion's whelps have not trodden 
it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. . . . 

'* But where shall wisdom be found? And 
where is the place of understanding ? Man know- 
eth not the price thereof; neither is it found in 
the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not 
in me; and the sea saith, It is not with me. // 
can not be gotten for gold, neither shall silver 
be weighed for the price thereof. . . . The gold 
and the crystal can not equal it; and the exchange 
of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. . . . 

9 



lO INTRODUCTORY 

Whence then cometh wisdom ? And where is the 
place of understanding ? . . . God understandeth 
the way thereof^ and He knoweth the place 
thereof. " ^ 

Man sometimes feels that he understands the 
way of wisdom, and boasts that he knows the 
place thereof. He may indeed understand it 
in a measure, and he may ascertain its abiding 
place; but that knowledge comes in one way, 
and only one. He who understandeth the way 
thereof and knoweth the place thereof, opens a 
channel which connects earth with that fountain 
of life. 

In the creation of the universe that wisdom 
was manifested. ''When He made a decree for 
the rain^ and a way for the lightning of the 
thunder; then did He see it, and declare it; He 
prepared it, yea, and searched it out." Written 
on the face of creation is the wisdom of the 
ETERNAL. ''And unto man He said. Behold, the 
fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart 
from evil is understanding." In other words, 
when man lives in harmony with God, — that is, 
when physically he acts in accordance with the 
laws of the universe; when mentally his thoughts 
1 Job 28. 



GOD THE SOURCE OF WISDOM Ii 

are those of the Father; and when spiritually 
his soul responds to the drawing power of love, 
that power which controls creation, — then has 
he entered the royal road which leads direct to 

WISDOM. 

Where is the wise? There is implanted in 
each human heart a longing to come in touch 
with wisdom. God, by the abundance of life, is 
as a great magnet, drawing humanity to Him- 
self. So close is the union that in Christ are 
hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowl- 
edge. In one man — a man made of flesh and 
blood like all men now living — there dwelt the 
spirit of wisdom. More than this, in Him are 
*'hid all the treasures of wisdom;" and hence 
the life of Immanuel stands a constant witness 
that the wisdom of the ages is accessible to 
man. And the record adds, *'Ye are complete 
in Him." 

This wisdom brings eternal life; for in Him are 
**hid all the treasures of wisdom," "and ye are 
complete in Him." "This is life eternal, that 
they might know Thee the only true God." 

Christ, at Jacob 's well, explained to the woman 
of Samaria, and through her to you and me, the 



12 INTRODUCTORY 

means of gaining wisdom. The well of living 
water, from the depths of which the patriarch had 
drawn for himself, his children, and his cattle, 
and which he bequeathed as a rich legacy to gen- 
erations following, who drank, and blessed his 
name, symbolized worldly wisdom. Men to-day 
mistake this for that wisdom described in Job, of 
which God understandeth the way and knoweth 
the place. Christ spoke of this latter when He 
said, ' ' If thou knewest the gift of God, and who 
it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou 
wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have 
given thee living water.'' ''If any man thirst, 
let him come unto Me, and drink. " 

Why, then, if wisdom may be had for the asking, 
if that spiritual drink may be had for the taking, 
are not all filled .'' The fountain flows free ; why 
are not all satisfied } Only one reason can be 
given : men in their search accept falsehood in 
place of truth. This blunts their sensibilities, until 
the false seems true and the true false. 

* * Where is the v\^ise .? . . . hath not God made 
foolish the wisdom of this world V *' Howbeit we 
speak wisdom among the perfect (full-grown): yet 
a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of 



GOD THE SOURCE OF WISDOM 13 

this age which are coming to naught : but we 
speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even the wis- 
dom that hath been hidden, . . . which none 
of the rulers of this world knoweth."^ 

There is, then, a distinction between the wisdom 
of God and that of this world. How, then, can 
we attain unto the higher life, — to the real, the 
true wisdom ? There are things which eye hath 
not seen nor ear heard, which eyes should see 
and ears hear, and these ''God hath revealed 
unto us by His Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth 
all things, yea, the deep things of God." 

To man, then, if born of the Spirit, is given a 
spiritual eyesight which pierces infinitude, and 
enables the soul to commune with the Author of 
all things. No wonder the realization of such 
possibilities within himself led the psalmist to 
exclaim, '' Such knowledge is too wonderful for 
me; it is high, I can not attain unto it." And 
Paul himself exclaimed, ' ' O the depth of the 
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! 
. . . For who hath known the mind of the 
Lord.?" ''The things of God knoweth no man, 
but the Spirit of God. * ' And ' ' we have received, 
not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is 

» I Cor. 2 : 6, R. V., mar. 



14 INTRODUCTORY 

of God; that we might know the things that are 
freely given to us of God." Hence to us is given 
the power to commune with Him and to search 
into the mysteries of the otherwise unfathomable. 

Dealing with wisdom is education. If it be the 
wisdom of the world, then it is worldly education; 
if, on the other hand, it is a search for the wisdom 
of God, it is Christian Education. 

Over these two questions the controversy be- 
tween good and evil is waging. The final triumph 
of truth will place the advocates of Christian edu- 
cation in the kingdom of God. ** God is a Spirit: 
and they that worship Him must worship in spirit 
and in truth." 

That education which links man with God, the 
source of wisdom, and the author and finisher of 
our faith, is a spiritual education, and prepares the 
heart for that kingdom which is within. 



II 

THE HEAVENLY SCHOOL 

God's throne, the center around which circled 
the worlds which had gone forth from the hand 
of the Creator, was the school of the universe. 
The Upholder of the worlds was Himself the great 
Teacher, and His character, love, was the theme of 
contemplation. Every lesson was a manifestation 
of His power. To illustrate the workings of the 
laws of His nature, this Teacher had but to speak, 
and before the attentive multitudes there stood 
the living thing. ''He spake, and it was; He 
commanded, and it stood fast."* 

Angels, and the beings of other worlds in count- 
less numbers, were the students. The course was 
to extend through eternity; observations were car- 
ried on through limitless space, and included every- 
thing from the smallest to the mightiest force, 
from the formation of the dewdrop to the building 
of the worlds, and the growth of the mind. To 
finish the course, if such an expression is per- 

iPs. 33:9. 15 



i6 THE HEAVENLY SCHOOL 

missible, meant to reach the perfection of the 

Creator Himself. 

To the angeHc host was given a work. 

The inhabitants of worlds were on pro- 
teachers 

bation. It was the joy of angels to 

minister to and teach other creatures of the uni- 
verse. The law of love was everywhere writ- 
ten; it was the constant study of the heavenly 
beings. Each thought of God was taken by 
them; and as they saw the workings of His plans, 
they fell before the King of kings, crying, 
''Holy, holy, holy." Eternity was all too short 
to reveal His love. 

, .- , The Father and Son were often in 
place in council. V/rapped together in that 

the school glory, the universe awaited the expres- 
of Christ g.^j^ ^f ^j^g.^ ^^g ^^.jj ^g ^^^ ^^ ^j^^ 

covering cherubim, Lucifer stood the first in power 
and majesty of all the angelic host. His eye 
beheld, his ear heard, he knew of all except the 
deep counsels which the Father, from all eternity, 
had purposed in the Son. ' ' Christ the Word, 
the only begotten of God, was one with the 
eternal Father, — one in nature, in character, in 
purpose, — the only being that could enter into 



LUCIFER'S POSITION IN HEAVEN 1/ 

all the counsels and purposes of God. . . . The 
Father wrought by His Son in the creation of 
all heavenly beings. * By Him were all things 
created, . . . whether they be thrones, or domin- 
ions, or principalities, or powers. All things were 
created by Him, and for Him.' Angels are God's 
ministers, radiant with the light ever flowing from 
His presence, and speeding on rapid wing to 
execute His will. But the Son, the anointed of 
God, the * express image of His person, ' the 
' brightness of his glory, ' ' upholding all things by 
the word of His power,' holds supremacy over 
them all." Lucifer, ''son of the morning," who 
''sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and per- 
fect in beauty, . . . every precious stone was 
thy covering. " ' ' Thou art the anointed cherub 
that covereth; I have set thee so; thou wast upon 
the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up 
and down in the midst of the stones of fire."^ 
He who had hovered over the throne of God, 
who had stood on the mount of the congregation 
in the sides of the north, and walked up and 
down among those living stones, each flashing 
with electric brightness the glory of reflected 

2Eze. 28:12-14. 



i8 THE HEAVENLY SCHOOL 

light, looked upon the council, and envied the 
position of the Son. 

Reason Hitherto all eyes had turned instinc- 
takes the tively toward the center of light. A 
place of cloud, the first one known, darkened 
faith ^j^g glory of the covering cherub. 

Turning his eyes inward, he reasoned that he 
was wronged. Had not he, Lucifer, been the 
bearer of light and joy to worlds beyond ? Why 
should not his might be recognized ? * * Thou wast 
perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast 
created till iniquity was found in thee." ''Thine 
heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou 
hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy 
brightness."^ "Thou hast said in thine heart, I 
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne 
above the stars of God: / will sit also upon 
the mount of the congregation, in the sides of 
the north: I will ascend above the heights of 
the clouds: I will be like the Most High."* 
Character While Lucifer thus reasoned, Christ, 
of the wrapped within the glory of the Father, 
true was offering His life for the world at 

its creation. Sin had not yet entered, 
the world was not yet created; but as the plans 

^Eze. 28 : 14, 17. *Isa. 14: 13, 14. 



CREATION CHOOSES TEACHERS 19 

were laid, the Son had said, ' ' Should sin enter, 
I am, from this time, one with those We now 
create, and their fall will mean My life on earth. 
Never has My heart gone out for any creation as 
I put it into this. Man in his earthly home 
shall have the highest expression of Our love, 
and for him My love demands that I lay My 
life beside his in his very creation." O won- 
drous gift ! O unselfish love ! How could that 
covering cherub, at the moment when the Son 
of God laid down His life, plan on his own exal- 
tation ? Sorrow, the first sorrow that was ever 
known, filled heaven. The angel choir was silent; 
the living stones withheld their shining. The 
stillness was felt throughout the universe. 
Creation ^^ offer was made to return, but pride 
chooses now closed the channel. Pity and 
teachers admiration for the leader of the hosts 
led many to feel that God was unjustly severe. 
The universe was on trial. * * Satan and his 
sympathizers were striving to reform the govern- 
ment of God. They wished to look into His 
unsearchable wisdom, and ascertain His purpose 
in exalting Jesus, and endowing Him with such 
unlimited power and command." Those who 



20 THE HEAVENLY SCHOOL 

before, inspired by love, took God at His word, 
and found their highest pleasure in watching the 
revealings of His love, now put their own minds 
in place of God's word, and reasoned that all 
was wrong. The unfoldings of His love, which 
had meant their very life, now looked but dark- 
ness and despair. God's wisdom, darkened by 
placing self between the throne and them, 
became foolishness. * * All the heavenly host 
were summoned to appear before the Father to 
have each case decided." ** About the throne 
gathered the holy angels, a vast, unnumbered 
throng, — 'ten thousand times ten thousand, and 
thousands of thousands,' — the most exalted angels, 
as ministers and subjects, rejoicing in the light 
that fell upon them from the presence of the 
Deity." 

Birth of '^^^ principles of God's government 
the rival were now laid bare: it was nothing but 
system of a great, broad system of educational 
eaucaton (development, and angelic hosts then 
and there decided whether faith in His word 
would be the standard of their obedience, or 
whether finite reason would bear sway. Even 
Satan himself was almost won, as the notes of 



THE RIVAL SYSTEM 21 

praise resounded through the domes of heaven; 
but again pride ruled. Here was born the rival 
system, — supreme selfishness facing the utter self- 
forgetfulness of Christ, reason over against faith. 
After long pleadings, and amidst deep mourning, 
heaven's portals opened to close forever upon 
the one who, with his followers, turned from 
light into the darkness of despair. 

A new era was ushered in; a controversy was 
begun. High heaven, with its eternal principles of 
love, life, progress, was challenged by a subtle foe, 
the father of lies. Deep as is the misery attend- 
ing the step, yet coexistent with the downward 
move was formulated the plan which, after the 
lapse of ages, will prove in a greater degree, 
and manifest eternally the truth, that * ' God is 
LOVE." The pathway is the way of the cross. 
It is a retracing of the mental degradation occa- 
sioned by the fall, but the process is according 
to the law of the school of heaven, — "according 
to your faith." If ye believe, all things are 
possible. 



Ill 

THE EDENIC SCHOOL 

** He spake, and it was; He commanded, 
Creation , . , . ,, , ^ , r i 

and it stood fast. ^ Forth from the 

throne of the Infinite passed the decree, and life 
flashing out into space, a world stood forth. 
Myriads of other worlds, held in their orbits by 
the ceaseless power of love, made their circuit 
about the throne of God. But one space in the 
universe had been reserved for the highest expres- 
sion of His love, where was to be manifested the 
depths of this divine attribute. *^And the earth 
was waste and void; and darkness was upon the 
face of the deep."^ But even into the darkness 
His presence penetrated ; and as ' * the Spirit of 
God was brooding upon the waters," He said, 
**Let there be light," and darkness scattered be- 
fore the word. The light, reflective of His own 
being, pleased Him; and He willed that it should 
be ever present, accompanying every form of life. 
The first day's work was done, — a day such as the 

1 Ps. 33 : 9. Gen. i ; 2, R. V. 



CREATION 23 

future man would know, and which, even in his 
fallen state, would measure off his years. 

The second day heard the mandate for the 
water to separate; and a third gathered the waters 
into seas, with the dry land appearing. And then 
" God said. Let the earth put forth grass," — the 
lowly blade covering the earth's nakedness with a 
robe of living green, itself so humble, yet a part 
of His life; for his life-breath formed it, and it 
partook of that life. Then came the herbs and 
lofty trees, each bearing seed, — self-productive, — 
for life is reproductive; and as the living coal 
kindles a sacred fire, so each tree bore within itself 
the power to reproduce its kind. ''And God saw 
that it was good. ' ' Then, that His own light 
might ever be the cause of growth. He placed 
luminaries in the heavens, each being the reflec- 
tion of His own countenance. By this should life 
be sustained. 

Into the moving waters passed the power of 
life. ''God said. Let the waters swarm with 
swarms of living creatures, and let fowl fly above 
the earth in the open firmament of heaven."^ 
At His word an abundance of life filled earth and 

3 Gen. I :20, R. V., mar. 



24 THE EDENIC SCHOOL 

sky and sea. Every drop of water sustained life; 

every square inch of air supported its myriads. 

And from the mighty leviathan that sported in 

the waters to the mote that floated in the air, all 

life proclaimed the love of God; and the Creator, 

viewing with satisfaction the work of His hand, 

pronounced each form of life perfect in its sphere. 

Each held within its own body the breath of life; 

each in its every movement sang hallelujahs to 

the Maker of the heavens and the earth. 

But the work was not yet complete. 
Mind— , : ^ 

thehijrh- ^ mmd controlled the universe; and its 

est form powers could be appreciated, its heart- 

ofcrea- love returned in the fullest sense, only 

by mind, — by beings made in the image 

of God Himself. And so **God said, Let Us 

make man in Our image, after Our likeness. " 

He can then hold dominion over the lower 

orders of creation, and standing to them as We 

do to the universe, all nature will see Our power 

in him. *'So God created man in His own 

image, in the image of God created He him; 

male and female created He them."* 

As if the moment of supreme endeavor had 

been reached even by God, He molded the form 

*Gen. 21 : 26-28. 



CREATION OF MAN 25 

of clay, — one, only one, in the image of Him- 
self. He breathed into its nostrils His own 
breath, — that breath which, vocalized, moved the 
worlds; before which angels bowed in adoration. 
That all-pervading element of life surged through 
the mighty frame, the organs performed their 
functions, the brain worked; the man Adam 
stood forth, strong and perfect; and instead of 
the piercing wail which now announces the begin- 
ning of a new life, his lips parted, and a song 
of praise ascended to the Creator. 

Standing by his side was his Elder Brother, 
Christ, the King of heaven. Adam felt the thrill 
of unity and harmony; and while for a ''little 
time inferior, " yet within him lay the possibilities 
of attaining greater heights than angels held. He 
was to be the companion of God, the perfect 
reflection of His light and glory; there was no 
thought of God that might not have access to 
the brain of man. The universe spread out 
in panoramic view before him. The earth, new- 
born, presented untold beauties. By his side 
stood his companion, the other half of his own 
nature, the two forming a perfect whole. The 
harmony of thought brought strength and life; 



26 THE EDENIC SCHOOL 

and, as a result of this unity, new beings like 

themselves would be brought into existence, until 

the earth was peopled. 

God planted a garden eastward in 

Eden, and from the beauties of the 
home 

earth chose the most beautiful spot for 

the home of the new pair. In the midst of 
the garden stood the tree of life, the fruit of 
which afforded man a perfect physical food. 
Beneath its spreading branches God Himself 
visited them, and, talking with them face to 
face, revealed to them the way of immortality. 
As they ate of the fruit of the tree of life, 
and found every physical want supplied, they 
were constantly reminded of the need of the 
spiritual meat which was gained by open con- 
verse with the Light from heaven. The glory 
of God surrounded the tree, and enwrapped in 
this halo, Adam and Eve spent much time in 
communing with the heavenly visitors. According 
to the divine system of teaching, they were 
here to study the laws of God and learn of 
his character. They * * were not only His children, 
but students receiving instruction from the all-wise 
Creator." 



STUDIES IN EDENIC SCHOOL 27 

Angfels, beholding: the wonders of the 
Subjects ^ ^ 

taught In ^^^' creation, delighted to fly earth- 

the first ward; and two from the heavenly host, 

school on by special appointment, became the 

instructors of the holy ones. * ' They 
were full of vigor imparted by the tree of life, 
and their intellectual power was but little less 
than that of the angels. The mysteries of the 
visible universe — 'the wondrous works of Him 
who is perfect in knowledge, — afforded them an 
exhaustless source pi instruction and delight. 
The laws and operations of nature, which have 
engaged men's study for six thousand years, 
were opened to their minds by the infinite 
Framer and Upholder of the universe. 

' ' They held converse with leaf and 
a. Botany flower and tree, gathering from each 

* , ^ the secrets of its life. With every liv- 

c. Astron= -^ 

omy i^g creature, from the mighty leviathan 

d. Physics that playeth among the waters to the 

e. Meteor= insect mote that floats in the sunbeam, 

ology 
^ „, Adam was familiar. He had e^iven to 

f. Miner- *^ 

alogy ^s-ch its name, and he was acquainted 

with the nature and habits of all. 

God's glory in the heavens, the innumerable 



28 THE EDENIC SCHOOL 

worlds in their orderly revolutions, * the balancing 
of the clouds,' the mysteries of light and sound, 
of day and night, — all were open to the study of 
our first parents. On every leaf of the forest 
or stone of the mountains, in every shining star, 
in earth and air and sky, God's name was writ- 
ten. The order and harmony of creation spoke 
to them of infinite wisdom and power. They 
were ever discovering some attraction that filled 
their hearts with deeper love, and called forth 
fresh expressions of gratitude. " 

As new beauties came to their attention, they 
were filled with wonder. Each visit of the heav- 
enly teachers elicited from the earthly students 
scores of questions which it was the delight of 
the angels to answer; and they in turn opened 
to the minds of Adam and Eve principles of 
living truth which sent them forth to their daily 
tasks of pleasure full of wondering curiosity, ready 
to use every God-given sense to discover illus- 
trations of the wisdom of heaven. *'As long as 
they remained loyal to the divine law, their 
capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love would 
continually increase. They would be constantly 
gaining new treasures of knowledge, discovering 



METHOD OF INSTRUCTION 29 

fresh springs of happiness, and obtaining clearer 
and yet clearer conceptions of the immeasur- 
able, unfailing love of God. " 

The divine method of teaching is here 

Method of revealed,— God's way of dealing v^ith 
Instruc- . , , . , , , , . _, 

.. mmds which are loyal to him. The 

governing laws of the universe were 
expounded. Man, as if looking into a picture, 
found in earth, sky, and sea, in the animate and 
inanimate world, the exemplification of those 
laws. He believed, and with a heavenly light, 
which is the reward of faith, he approached each 
new subject of investigation. Divine truths un- 
folded continually. Life, power, happiness, — 
these subjects grew with his growth. The angels 
stimulated the desire to question, and again led 
their students to search for answers to their own 
questions. At his work of dressing the garden, 
Adam learned truths which only work could 
reveal. As the tree of life gave food to the 
flesh, and reminded constantly of the mental 
and spiritual food necessary, so manual training 
added light to the mental discipline. The laws 
of the physical, mental, and spiritual world were 
enunciated; man's threefold nature received at- 



30 THE EDENIC SCHOOL 

tention. This was education, perfect and com- 
plete. 

The magnetic power about the tree of life 
held man, filling his senses with a thrill of 
delight. Adam and Eve lived by that power, 
and the human mind was an open channel for 
the flow of God's thought. Rapidly the charac- 
ter of the Edenic pair was being formed, but 
strength could not come from mere automatic 
action. Freedom to choose God's company and 
spirit was given; and while He wooed them with 
His tenderest love. He had placed in the midst 
of the garden a tree of another sort. 

To the man He said, " Of the tree of the 
A. lesson 

ith knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 

not eat of it; for in the day that thou 

eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. "^ What was 

the meaning of this command ^ As the angel 

teachers heard the question from man's lips, a 

cloud seemed to dim the brightness of their glory. 

Did not Adam feel a strange sensation, as if the 

fuDness of divine thought was suddenly checked in 

its course through his brain ? He was preparing 

himself to accept teachings of a different character. 

Then was told the story of the one sorrow 

5 Gen. 2:17. 



A LESSON IN FAITH 31 

heaven had known, — of the fall of Lucifer, and the 
darkness it brought to him; that while he lived, the 
decree of God was that he could no longer remain 
within the walls of Paradise. In low tones it was 
told how some could not see the justice of this; 
that Lucifer had been given the earth as his pres- 
ent home; that he would use his arts to capture 
them; but that light and power had been placed 
about the tree of life, and remaining true to the 
teaching given within the circle of its rays, no evil 
could overtake them. ''Faith, have faith in 
God's word," said the angel, as he winged his 
flight toward heaven. 

The word ''death" sounded unnatural to hu- 
man ears, and as they sat together talking of the 
angel's words, a longing to understand filled their 
hearts. Fear ? — they knew no such word. Was 
not their Maker love f Eve, wandering from her 
husband's side, found, before she knew it, that she 
was nearing the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil. She stood gazing from a distance, when 
from the rich verdure came a voice of sweetest 
music : — 

" Beautiful woman, made in God's own image, 
what can mar thy perfect beauty } What can stop 



32 THE EDENIC SCHOOL 

that life now coursing through thy veins ? ' Hath 
God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the gar- 
den ? ... Ye shall not surely die : for God doth 
know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your 
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods know- 
ing good and evil.'" Speaking, he plucked and 
ate. Was this the deceiver ? Had she not been 
promised a knowledge of all things ? Was she not 
to be with God ? Perhaps this was some new rev- 
elation of his goodness. She felt no danger. He 
ate, why should not she ? 

Her curiosity was aroused, and she was 

flattered by the words of the serpent. 
doubt -^ ... 

Instead of fleeing, she argued with him, 

and attempted to decide in her own mind between 

right and wrong. But God had told her what was 

right. That moment of indecision, of doubting, 

was the devil's opportunity. 

Unable to reach the soul of man by direct 

means, Satan approached it through those outer 

channels, the senses He had everything to win, 

and proceeded cautiously. If man's mind could 

be gained, his great work would be accompHshed. 

To do this he used a process of reasoning — a 

method the reverse of that used by the Father 



A LESSON IN REASONING 33 

in his instruction at the tree of life. The mind 
of Eve was strong, and quickly drew conclusions; 
hence, when her new teacher said, '' If ye eat, ' ye 
shall be as gods,' " in the mind of Eve arose the 
thought, God has immortality. ''Therefore," said 
Satan, ^'ii j/e eat, ' ye shall not surely die.' " The 
conclusion was logically drawn, and the world, from 
the days of Eve to the present time, has based its 
religious beHef on that syllogism, the major prem- 
ise of which, as did Eve, they fail to recognize as 
false. Why ? — Because they use the mind to 
decide the truth instead of taking a direct state- 
ment from the Author of wisdom. From this one 
false premise comes the doctrine of the natural 
immortality of man, with its endless variations, 
some modern names of which are theosophy. Spir- 
itualism, reincarnation, and evolution. The sons 
and daughters of Eve condemn her for the mistake 
made six thousand years ago, while they them- 
selves repeat it without question. It is preached 
from the pulpit, it is taught in the schoolroom, 
and its spirit pervades the thought of every book 
written whose author is not in perfect harmony 
with God and truth. Now began the study of 
** dialectics," so destructive to the Christian's faith. 
3 



34 THE EDENIC SCHOOL 

Having accepted the logic of the 

deceived serpent, and having transferred her 

because faith from the word of God to the tree 

she de- q{ knowledge at Satan 's suggestion, the 

woman could easily be led to test 
upon '' 

sense ^^ truth of all his statements by her 

percep- senses. A theory had been advanced; 
tlons ^i^g experimental process now began. 

That is the way men now gain their knowledge, 
but their wisdom comes otherwise. She looked 
upon the forbidden fruit, but no physical change 
was perceptible as the result of the misuse of 
this sense. This led her to feel more sure that 
the argument used had been correct. Her ears 
were attentive to the words of the serpent, but 
she perceived no change as a result of the 
perverted use of the sense of hearing. This, 
to the changing mind of the woman, was still 
more conclusive proof that the words of Christ 
and angels did not mean what she had at first 
thought they meant. The senses of touch, 
smell, and taste were in turn used, and each 
corroborated the conclusion drawn by the devil. 
The woman was deceived, and through the 
deception her mind was changed. This same 



MINDS OF ADAM AND EVE CHANGED 35 

change of mind may be wrought either by decep- 
tion or as a result of false reasoning. 
A chansre ^^^ approached Adam with the fruit 
in the in her hand. Instead of answering in 
mind of the oft-repeated words of Christ, ' ^ In 
^^^^ the day that thou eatest thereof thou 

shalt surely die," he took up the logic of the 
serpent. Having eaten, his mind was also 
changed. He who from creation had thought 
the thoughts of God, was yielding to the mind 
of the enemy. The exactness with which he 
had once understood the mind of God was exem- 
pHfied when he named the animals; for the 
thought of God which formed the animal passed 
through the mind of Adam, and ' * whatsoever 
Adam called every Uving creature, that was the 
name thereof." 

Evidence '^^^ completeness of the change which 
of a took place is seen in the argument 

clianged used when God walked in the garden in 
the cool of the evening. Said Adam, 
' * The woman gave me to eat. Thou gavest me 
the woman. Therefore Thou art to blame." 
This was another decidedly logical conclusion, 
from the standpoint of the wisdom of the serpent, 



36 THE EDENIC SCHOOL 

and it was repeated by Eve, who laid the 
blame first on the serpent, and finally on God 
himself. Self-justification, self-exaltation, self- 
worship, — here was the human origin of the 
papacy, that power which * ' opposeth and exalteth 
itself above all that is called God." 
Spiritual '^^^ spiritual death which followed the 
death the perversion of the senses was attended, 
first re- in time, by physical death. Indeed, 
su t o sn ^Y^^ £j.^-^ ^^^ scarcely been eaten when 
the attention of the man and his wife was 
turned toward externals. The soul, which had 
enveloped the physical man as a shroud of 
light, withdrew, and the physical man appeared. 
A sense of their nakedness now appalled them. 
Something was lacking; and with all the glory 
they had known, with all the truths which 
had been revealed, there was nothing to take 
the place of the departed spiritual nature. 
''Dying, thou shalt die," was the decree; and 
had not the Saviour at this moment made known 
to Adam the plan of the cross, eternal death 
would have been inevitable. 

God, through His instruction, had taught that 
the result of faith would be immortal life. 



TRUE EDUCATION AND REDEMPTION 37 

Satan taught, and attempted to prove his logic 
by a direct appeal to the senses, that there was 
immortal life in the wisdom that comes as the 
result of human reason. The method employed 
by Satan is that which men to-day call the 
natural method, but in the mind of God the 
wisdom of the world is foolishness. The method 
which to the godly mind, to the spiritual nature, 
seems natural, is foolishness to the world. 
Trueedu- There are but two systems of educa- 
cation and tion, — the one based on what God 
redemp'' calls wisdom, the gift of which is eter- 
**" nal life; the other based on what the 

world regards as wisdom, but which God says is 
foolishness. This last exalts reason above faith, 
and the result is spiritual death. That the fall 
of man was* the result of choosing the false 
system of education can not be controverted. 
Redemption comes through the adoption of the 
true system of education. 

Re-creation is a change of mind, — -an ex- 
change of the natural for the spiritual. ' * Be 
not conformed to this world, but be ye trans- 
formed by the renewing of your mind. ' ' In 
order to render such a change possible, Christ 



38 THE EDENIC SCHOOL 

must bruise the head of the serpent; that is, 
the philosophy of the devil must be disproved 
by the Son of God. Christ did this, but in so 
doing, his heel, representing his physical nature, 
was bruised. The result of the acceptance of 
the Satanic philosophy has been physical suffer- 
ing; and the more completely man yields to the 
system built upon that philosophy, the more 
complete is the subjection of the race to physical 
infirmities. 

After the fall, man turned to coarser 

, articles of diet, and his nature s^radu- 

degen= 

eracv ^^^^ became more gross. The spiritual 

nature, at first the prominent part of 
his being, was dwarfed and overruled until it 
was but the "small voice" within. With the 
development of the physical and the intel- 
lectual to the neglect of the spiritual, have come 
the evils of modern society, — the love of display, 
the perversion of taste, the deformity of the body, 
and those attendant sins which destroyed Sodom, 
and now threaten our cities. Man became care- 
less in his work also, and the earth failed to 
yield her fullness. As a result, thorns and thistles 
sprang up. 



FOUNDATION OF TRUE EDUCATION 39 

It is not surprising, after following the decline 
of the race, to find that the system of education 
introduced by Christ begins with the instruction 
given in the garden of Eden, and that it is based 
on the simple law of faith. We better appreciate 
the gift of Christ when we dwell upon the thought 
that while suffering physically, while taking our 
infirmities into his own body. He yet preserved 
a sound mind and a will wholly subject to the 
Father's, that by so doing the philosophy of 
the archdeceiver might be overthrown by the 
divine philosophy. 

Again, it is but natural to suppose that when 
called upon to decide between the two systems of 
education, the human and the divine, and Chris- 
tian education is chosen, that man will also have 
to reform his manner of eating and living. The 
original diet of man is again made known, and 
for his home he is urged to choose a garden spot, 
away from crowded cities, where God can speak 
to his spiritual nature through His works. 

God does use the senses of man; but knowl- 
edge thus gained becomes wisdom only when 
enlightened by the Spirit, the gateway to whose 
fountain is opened by the key of faith. 



40 THE EDENIC SCHOOL 

Beneath the tree of life originated the 

hie^hest method of education, — the plan 
science ^ 

and death ^^^ world needs to-day. Beneath the 
branches of the tree of the knowledge 
of good and evil arose the conflicting system, 
having ever one object in view, — the overthrow 
of the eternal principles of truth. Under one 
guise, then under another, it has borne sway 
upon the earth. Whether as Babylonish learn- 
ing, Greek philosophy, Egyptian wisdom, the 
high glitter of papal pomp, or the more modest 
but no less subtle workings of modern science, 
the results always have been, and always will be, 
a savor of death unto death. 

As was the unassuming life of the 

Saviour of man when walking the 
science of 

lllg earth unrecognized by the lordly Phari- 

sees and wise men of his day, so has 
been the progress of truth. It has kept steadily 
on the onward march, regardless of oppres- 
sion. Men's minds, clouded by self-worship, fail 
to recognize the voice from heaven. It is passed 
by as the low mutterings of thunder at the 
gate Beautiful when the Father spoke to his 
Son, and the halo of heavenly light encircling 



THE TRUE SCIENCE OF LIFE 41 

eternal truth is explained by natural causes. 
Man's reason is opposed to simple faith, but 
those who will finally reach the state of complete 
harmony with God will have begun where Adam 
failed. Wisdom will be gained by faith. Self 
will have been lost in the adoration of the great 
Mind of the universe, and he who was created 
in the image of God, who was pronounced by 
the Master Mind as ''very good,'' will, after the 
struggle with sin, be restored to the harmony of 
the universe by the simple act of faith. 

**If thou canst beUeve, all things are possible." 



IV 

THE HISTORY OF FIFTEEN CENTURIES 

As a stone, hurled from some mountain peak, 
crashes its way toward the valley beneath, gaining 
velocity with each foot of descent, until, wrapped 
within it, lies a power of destruction unmeasured, 
so man, turning from the gate of Paradise, began 
a downward career which in intensity and rapidity 
can be measured only by the height from which 
he started. 

Giant minds held mighty powers in abeyance. 
Before the strong will of men of the first ten 
centuries few forces could stand. As the plane to 
which it was possible for him to attain was per- 
fection, so the level to which he descended was 
confusion itself. Men's lives, instead of being 
narrowed by the brief span of threescore years 
and ten, were measured by centuries; and intel- 
lects, mighty by birth, had time as well as power 
to expand. The man of seventy was then but a 
lad, with life and all its possibilities spread out 
before him. Adam lived to see his children to the 
42 



TWO SCHOOLS BEFORE THE FLOOD 43 

eighth generation; and when we think that from 
his own lips Enoch learned the story of the fall, 
of the glories of the Eden home; when we bear 
in mind that Enoch probably saw this same 
ancestor laid in the earth, there to molder to 
dust, we better understand the relation he desired 
to sustain to his God. After a life of three hun- 
dred years, in which, the Sacred Record says, 
he "walked with God," earth's attraction grew so 
slight that he himself was taken into heaven. This 
was less than sixty years after the death of Adam. 
J Passing beyond the gate of Eden, two 

schools classes of minds developed. Clear and 
before the distinct as light from darkness was the 
food difference between the two. Cain, by 

exalting his own reasoning powers, accepted the 
logic of Satan. Admitting the physical plane to be 
the proper basis for living, he lost all appreciation of 
spiritual things, and depended wholly upon feeling. 
True, for a time he adhered to the form of wor- 
ship, coming week by week to the gate of Eden 
to offer sacrifice; but his eye of faith was blind. 
When he saw his brother's sacrifice accepted, a 
feeling of hatred sprang up in his breast, and, 
raising his hand, he took that brother's life. 



44 HISTORY OF FIFTEEN CENTURIES 

Men are startled at the rapidity of the descent 
from Edenic purity to a condition where murder 
was easy, but it was the natural result of the 
educational system chosen by Cain. Reason ex- 
alted above faith makes man like the engine with- 
out the governor. 

Murder, however, was but one result of 
Character 

developed ^^^ decision made by Cain. He fled 
in the from the presence of God, and, with his 
worldly descendants built the cities of the East. 
Physical needs predominated, so that 
the whole attention of this people was turned to 
the gratification of fleshly desires. Pride increased, 
love of wealth was a ruling passion; the artificial 
took, more and more, the place once occupied by 
the natural. In the place of God-worship was 
self-worship, or paganism. This was the religious 
aspect, and here are to be found the first wor- 
shipers of the sun, the human progenitors of the 
modern papacy. 

As there was a change in religion, so 

Affects 

there was a chane^e in e^overnment. 
govern= 

^QJ^l There could no longer be a theocracy, 

the father of the family being the high 

priest unto God; for God had been lost sight of. 



ORIGIN OF FALSE PHILOSOPHY 45 

and his place was filled by man himself. Hence, 
these descendants of Cain flocked together into 
cities, where the strong bore rule over the weak, 
and thus developed an absolute monarchy, which 
is perpetuated to-day in the kingdoms of eastern 
Asia. 

The education which upheld paganism in religion 
and monarchy in government was the same as that 
which in later days controlled Greece, and is 
known by us to-day as Platonism. It is but 
another name for an education which exalts the 
mind of man above God, and places human phi- 
losophy ahead of divine philosophy. 
Oriirin of '^^^ philosophy which was thus exalted, 
false — this science falsely so-called, — deified 

philos- nature, and would to-day be known as 
^^ ^ evolution. You think the name a mod- 

ern one. It may be, but the philosophy antedates 
the flood, and the schools of those men before the 
flood taught for truth the traditions of men as 
truly as they are taught to-day. 

We think, perhaps, that there were no schools 
then, but that is a mistake. ' * The training of the 
youth in those days was after the same order as 
children are being educated and trained in this age, 



46 HISTORY OF FIFTEEN CENTURIES 

— to love excitement, to glorify themselves, to 

follow the imaginations of their own evil hearts." 

Their keen minds laid hold of the sciences; they 

delved into the mysteries of nature. They made 

wonderful progress in inventions and all material 

pursuits. But the imaginations of their hearts were 

only evil continually. 

/-sx ...! Children educated in the cities had their 
City life 

unfitted ^vil tendencies exaggerated. The philo- 
minds for sophical teaching of the age blotted out 
truth ^Y[ faith; and when Noah, a teacher of 

righteousness, raised his voice against the popular 
education, and proclaimed his message of faith, 
even the little children scoffed at him. 

So polluted were the cities that Enoch chose to 
spend much time in retired places, where he could 
commune with God, and where he would be in 
touch with nature. At times he entered the cities, 
proclaiming to the inhabitants the truth given to 
him by God. Some listened, and occasionally 
small companies sought him in his places of re- 
tirement, to listen to his words of warning. But 
the influence of early training, the pressure brought 
to bear by society, and the philosophy of the 
schools, exerted a power too strong to resist, and 



ANTEDILUVIAN SCIENCE FALSE 47 

they turned from the pleadings of conscience to 

the old life. 

Anted!- ^^ Noah told of the coming flood, and 

luvian as he and his sons continued to build 

science ^^le ark, men and children derided. 

' * Water from heaven ! Ah, Noah, you 
was con- ^ 

trary to ^^Y *^^^ ^^ Y^^^ Spiritual insight, but 
Qod*s who ever heard of water coming out of 

^®**** the sky } The thing is an impossibil- 

ity; it is contrary to all reason, to all scientific 
truth, and to all earth's experience. You may 
think such things were revealed to you; but since 
the days of our father Adam, no such thing ever 
happened." Such statements seemed true. Gen- 
eration after generation had looked into a sky 
undarkened by storm-clouds. Night after night 
dew watered the growing plants. Why should 
they believe otherwise ? They could see no reason 
for it. To those antediluvians, the possibility of 
a flood seemed as absurd as does its recital as a 
matter of history to the modern higher critic. It 
was out of harmony with men's senses, hence an 
impossibility. 

The student in the nineteenth century finds in 
the earth's crust great beds of coal, or the remains 



43 HISTORY OF FIFTEEN CENTURIES 

of monsters which once hved upon the face of the 
earth, and he accounts for these by saying that 
'•^ time is long.'' In the words of Dana, '*If time 
from the commencement of the Silurian age in- 
cluded forty-eight millions of years ^ which some 
geologists would pronounce much too low an esti- 
mate, the Paleozoic part, according to the above 
ratio, would comprise thirty-six millions, the Meso- 
zoic nine millions, and the Cenozoic three millions." 
Modern text-books are filled with these and re- 
lated ideas of evolution, which account for the 
effects of the flood by gradual changes consuming 
millions of years. 

An educa- '^^^ Word of God is again laid aside, 
tion of and man by his own power of reason- 
sight and ing draws conclusions contrary to the 
not faith testimony of the Inspired Record. The 
theory of evolution is thus substantiated in the 
human mind; and as the antediluvians were, by 
their scientific research and wisdom, falsely so- 
called, unfitted to receive the message of the 
flood, so people to-day, by pursuing a similar 
course, are unfitting themselves for the message 
of Christ's appearance in the clouds of heaven. 
When will man learn that there are things which 



CAUSE OF THE FLOOD 49 

eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and yet which 
exist as really as do those few things — few 
compared with the many in the regions beyond 
— which fall within our range of vision ? 

Before the flood, no peal of thunder had ever 
resounded among the hills, no lightning had ever 
played through the heavens. You who to-day 
have read the works of earth's greatest authors, 
who have delved into the secrets of science, have 
you discovered the soul of man? Have you yet 
found the golden cord of faith ? Should the 
Almighty question you as He did His servant Job, 
how would you pass the examination ? To you 
would befall the fate of the generation of Noah. 
Four men built the ark. Such a thing had never 
been seen before. ''How unshapely, " say they. 
''How absurd to think of water standing over the 
earth until that will float!'' But in the ears 
of the faithful four whispered the still, small 
voice of God, and the work went steadily on. 
Flood a '^^^ controversy was an educational 
result of problem. Christian education was al- 
wrong most wiped from the earth. Worldly 
e uca ion ^jg^j^j^ seemed about to triumph. In 
point of numbers its adherents vastly exceeded 



50 HISTORY OF FIFTEEN CENTURIES 

those in the schools of the Christians. Was 
this seeniing triumph of evil over good a sign 
that evil was stronger than truth ? — By no means. 
Only in the matter of scheming and deceiving 
does the devil have the advantage; for God can 
work only in a straightforward manner. 

The tree of life was still upon the earth, an 
emblem of the wisdom of God. Man, however, 
had turned his back upon it. Eating the fruit 
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil 
brought death, and this the inhabitants of the 
earth were about to realize, although their worldly 
wisdom taught them the contrary. 

Wrong T^® ^^^^ ^^ 1^^^ w^s taken to heaven 
methods before the flood, ^ thus symbolizing the 
of educa= departure of true wisdom from the 

earth. The flood came. Deep rum- 
the with= ^ 

drawal of flings of thunder shook the very earth. 
God's Man and beast fled terrified from the 

Spirit flashes of lightning. The heavens 

opened; the rain fell, — at first in great drops. 
The earth reeled and cracked open; the foun- 
tains of the great deep were broken up; water 
came from above, water from beneath. A cry 
went up to heaven, as parents clasped their 
1 Rev. 2: 7, 



RESULT OF HUMAN REASON 5 1 

children in the agony of death; but the Spirit 
of the Life-giver was withdrawn. Does this seem 
crueL^ God had pleaded with each generation, 
with each individual, saying, ' ' Why will ye, why 
will ye?" But only a deaf ear was turned to 
Him. Man, satisfied with schooHng his senses, 
with depending upon his own reasoning powers, 
closed, one by one, every avenue through which 
the Spirit of God could work; and nature, 
responding to the loss, was broken to her very 
heart, and wept floods of tears. 

One family, and only one, bound heaven and 
earth together. Upon the bosom of the waters 
rocked the ark in safety. God's Spirit rested 
there, and in the midst of greater turmoil than 
angels had ever witnessed, a peace which pass- 
eth all understanding filled the minds and hearts 
of that faithful company. 

The waters subsided; the earth lay a desolate 
mass. Mountains stood bleak and barren where 
once stretched plains of living green. Trees, 
magnificent in their towering strength, lay dying 
as the waters left the earth. Great masses 
of rock covered places hitherto inhabited. This 
family came forth as strangers in a strange land. 



52 HISTORY OF FIFTEEN CENTURIES 

Faith the '^^^ P^^^ °^ education must start anew. 
basis of Each successive step away from God 
the new rendered more difficult man's access to 
educa- y^ throne; it had lengthened, as it 
were, the ladder one more round. 
There was at first this one lesson to be taken 
by faith, — that God was true in saying, *'In 
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
surely die." It was a lesson of faith versus 
reason. Next came two lessons of faith: first, 
faith opposed by reason; and, second, the plan 
of redemption through Christ. Then came the 
third lesson, — the flood. Would that man could 
have grasped the first, or, missing that, he had 
taken the second, or even losing hold of that, 
he could have taken the third by faith, and 
prevented the flood. 

From beginning to end it was a matter of 
education. Christians to-day exalt the material 
to the neglect of the spiritual, as surely as did 
men before the flood. Shall we not look for 
similar results, since similar principles are at 
work } 

The education of the popular schools advo- 
cated nature study; but, leaving God out, they 



FAITH VERSUS REASON 53 

deified nature, and accounted for the existence 
of all things by the same theories which are 
to-day termed evolution. This is man's theory 
of creation with faith dropped out of the cal- 
culation. 

''This they willingly are ignorant of, that by 
the word of God the heavens were of old, and 
the earth standing out of the water and in the 
water: whereby the world that then was, being 
overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens 
and the earth, which are now, by the same 
word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against 
the day of judgment."^ 

''As it was in the days of Noah, so shall 
it be also in the days of the Son of man."^ 

2 2 Peter 3 : 5-7. 3Lukei7:26. 



V 

THE SCHOOL OF ABRAHAM 

Raoid T^a^ ease with which men fall into evil 

decline habits is illustrated in the history of the 
after the world after the flood. Upon leaving the 
^® ark, four families who had known God, 

had committed to them the peopling of the earth. 
But evil tendencies, the result of years of acquaint- 
ance with the iniquity of the antediluvian world, 
gained the ascendency^ and the sons of Noah, 
failing to carry out the principles of true education 
in their homes, saw their children drifting away 
from God. 

True, the bow of promise appeared often in the 
heavens as a reminder of the awful results of sin, 
and telling them also of the God-Father who 
sought their hearts' service. But again the logic 
of the evil one was accepted, and men said, ' ' We 
shall not surely die." As a sign of their confi- 
dence in their own strength they built the tower 
of Babel. They had been scattered in the hill 
country, where nature and natural scenery tended 
54 



FALSE EDUCATION MADE DIFFICULT 55 

to elevate their thoughts. They followed the 
valley, and built cities in the low plains. 

Not more than a single century had elapsed 
since the flood had destroyed all things. The 
change was a rapid one. The successive steps in 
degeneration are readily traced. They chose an 
education of the senses rather than one of faith; 
they left the country and congregated in cities; a 
monarchy arose. Schools sprang up which per- 
petuated these ideas; paganism took the place of 
the worship of God. The tower was a monument 
to the sun; idols filled the niches in the structure. 
Men offered their children as sacrifices. 

The slaying of infants and children is but car- 
rying out in the extreme what is always done 
mentally and spiritually when children are taught 
false philosophy. That man might not bring upon 
himself immediate destruction, the language was 
confused, and education in false philosophy thus 
rendered more difficult. 

It was from this influence, as found in 
Abraham ^^^ ^-^^ ^f jj^ ^^ ^^^ Chaldees, that Abra- 
called 
from Ur ^'^^ called. Although the family 

of Terah knew the true God, and His 
worship was maintained in the home, it was im- 



56 THE SCHOOL OF ABRAHAM 

possible for him to counteract the influence of 
the city with its idolatrous practices; so God 
called Abraham into the country. 

He was obliged to go forth by faith. The 
removal meant the severing of every earthly tie. 
Wealth and ease were exchanged for a wandering 
life. How he could make a living Abraham did 
not know. How he could educate his children 
he did not understand. But he went forth 
Terah, his father, and Lot, his nephew, went 
with him. They halted at Haran, a smaller city, 
and remained there until the father's death. Then 
came the command to go forward. Out into a 
new country he went, a pilgrim and a stranger. 

* ' By faith Abraham, when he was called to go 
out into a place which he should after receive for 
an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not 
knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned 
in the land of promise, as in a strange country, 
dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, 
the heirs with him of the same promise; for he 
looked for a city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God." ''He staggered not 
at the promise of God through unbelief; but was 
strong in faith." ^ 

1 Heb. II : 8-10 ; Rom. 4 : 20. 



CALLED TO TEACH 57 

It was when the patriarch had jour- 

^ ^ ^ neyed into this strange land, and knew 
teach 

not whither he was going, that his 

work as a teacher began. The commission of 
Christ to the apostles, ' < Go ye therefore, and 
teach all nations," was not more emphatic than 
the command to Abraham. God called him to 
teach, and he was to be a teacher of nations. 
To the disciples it was said, ' ' All power is 
given unto Me; ... go ye therefore, and teach 
all nations." A power was to attend their teach- 
ing. Power is synonomous with life; there is no 
power without life, and a teacher has power in 
proportion as he lives what he wishes to teach. 
Abraham was to be a teacher of nations, 
hence he must have power. Power could come 
only as the result of a life of faith, and so his 
whole life was one continual lesson of faith. Each 
experience made him a more powerful teacher. 
Qod ore- ^^^ i'^\\^ grew by trial, and only 
pares as he mounted round by round the 

Abraham ladder which spanned the gulf twixt 
to teach heaven and earth, and which had 
seemed to lengthen with each succeeding genera- 
tion. A period of not less than twenty-five 



58 THE SCHOOL OF ABRAHAM 

years — years filled with doubt, fear, anxiety — 
was necessary to bring him to the place where 
the name Abraham — the father of nations — 
could be rightly claimed by him. Another quarter 
of a century rolled over his head, years in which 
he watched the growth of the child of promise; 
then the voice of God called him to raise his hand 
to take the life of that same son. He who had 
said that in Isaac should all nations of the earth 
be blessed, now demanded the sacrifice of that life 
at the father's hand. But He, the Life-giver in 
the event of the child's birth, was now believed 
to be the Life-giver should death rob him of his 
child, and the father faltered not. 

These fifty years, with God and angels as 
teachers, reveal to us, as no other period does, 
the results of true education, and merit careful at- 
tention. If the workings of the Spirit ever wrought 
changes in the human heart, those changes came to 
Abraham. It is not strange that when God called 
the first time the voice seemed far away, and 
but partially awoke the slumbering soul. As if 
in a dream, he, his father, his nephew, and his 
wife, broke away from earthly ties and from the 
beautiful Chaldean plains, where luxury and 



HOW GOD TAUGHT FAITH 59 

learning were daily things of life, and journeyed 
toward the hill country. 

It has been stated before that God 
teaches by the enunciation of principles, 
faith ^^ universal laws, and the spirit which 

comes by faith enlightens the senses 
that they may grasp the illustrations of these 
laws in the physical world. That is heaven's 
method of teaching the angehc throng, and it 
was the method applied before the fall. With 
Abraham the case was at the beginning far from 
ideal. Here was a pupil lacking faith. How 
should he be taught the wisdom of the Eternal ? 
God leads in a mysterious way. As Christ Hved 
His visible life, because the eye of faith was blind 
in Israel, so, in the time of Abraham, God taught 
inductively, as He now says the heathen are to be 
taught. To him who had no faith, God came 
visibly at first, and, leading step by step, developed 
a faith which before his death enabled Abraham 
to grasp eternal principles of truth if God but 
spoke. 

In Ur, God said, ' ' I will make of thee a great 
nation, and I will bless thee, and will make thy 
name great." Years passed, age crept on, and 



6o THE SCHOOL OF ABRAHAM 

still there was no heir. Could he have mis- 
taken the voice which bade him turn his face 
toward Canaan, and promised to him and his 
descendants all the land from the ' ' great river, 
the river Euphrates, . . . unto the great sea 
toward the going down of the sun"? ''And 
Abraham said. Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, 
seeing I go childless ? Shall it be that my 
steward, Eliezer, shall become my heir ? Shall 
he be the child of promise ? Behold, to me 
Thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in 
my house is mine heir. "^ 

This was man's way of working out a promise 
made by the Maker of the universe. Have tve 
passed beyond this elementary lesson of faith ? 
Can we grasp God's promise of faith, and, with 
no fear or thought, leave results with Him who 
knows .? 

No, Abraham; think not that heaven is limited 
by the line which bounds thy horizon. ' ' This 
shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come 
forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir." 
And, standing under the starry canopy of heaven, 
Abraham's soul grasped the power of the Creator. 

2 Gen. 15 2 : 3. 



BIRTH OF ISAAC 6i 

He himself to be a father! His face Hghted with 
a holy joy as he related to Sarai his experience 
with God. 

But Sarai bare him no children; and that she 
might help heaven fulfill its promise, she forsook 
the divine law of marriage, and gave to Abraham 
her handmaid, Hagar, to be his wife. Would that 
man could grasp at least the beginnings of the 
possibilities of God! Untold suffering was the out- 
growth of that one step of unbelief. Not one, not 
two people, but generations then unborn, had their 
destinies marred by this lack of faith. Hagar, 
sitting over against her dying child, and weeping 
because of the bitterness of her fate, is a constant 
portrayal of an attempt to Hve by sight. ^ Again, 
the approach of the angel and the rescue of the 
child records in burning characters the longing of 
Him who pities our blindness, and awards us 
far above what we can ask or think. 

Ninety-nine years passed over the 

patriarch's head, and still the voice of 

heaven's messenger was greeted with a 

laugh when the promise was repeated. Sarah 

turned within the tent door when the angel guest, 

3 Gal. 4 : 22, 25. 



62 THE SCHOOL OF ABRAHAM 

whom they had fed, repeated to Abraham the 
promise concerning his wife. But she bare to 
Abraham a son whom God named Isaac, in whom 
the nations of the earth were blessed. Joy untold 
filled the heart of the mother and father as they 
beheld the babe. 

This was the joy of sight. Twenty-five years 
before, the thing was just as true, and Abraham 
might lawfully have worked upon the basis of 
its truth; but the stubborn human heart requires 
niany lessons. Twenty-five years after this, the 
strength of Abraham's faith was tested at the altar 
of sacrifice. Leaving home early one morning, he 
carried fire, laid wood upon the young man's shoul- 
ders, and journeyed toward Mount Moriah. <* Be- 
hold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb 
for a burnt offering .-^ " asked the son. *'God will 
provide himself a lamb," answered the man who 
had at last learned to believe God. It is but the 
simple story of an ancient patriarch; but the word 
of God bears record that ^'Abraham believed God, 
and it was counted to him for righteousness." 

And *'if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's 
seed and heirs according to the promise." Herein 
lies the value of this lesson to us. We are his 



ABRAHAM'S SCHOOL 63 

heirs if we link ourselves to the power of the 

Infinite by that cord of faith. Only by a Hfe 

and an education such as his can the kingdom 

of Christ be set up within. Such lessons made 

Abraham a successful teacher. 

Those who wished to worship the true 

God e:athered about the tents of Abra- 
ham's 
school ham, and became pupils in his school. 

God's word was the basis of all instruc- 
tion, as it is written, "These are the command- 
ments, . . . which the Lord your God commanded 
to teach you, that ye might do them in the land 
whither ye go to possess it." 

This WORD was the basis for the study of polit- 
ical science, and Abraham's ''methods of govern- 
ment" were ''carried out in the households over 
which they [his students] should preside." The 
equality of all men was a lesson first learned in the 
home. " Abraham's affection for his children and 
his household led him ... to impart to them a 
knowledge of the divine statutes, as the most 
precious legacy he could transmit to them, and 
through them to the world. All were taught that 
they were under the rule of the God of heaven. 
There was to be no oppression on the part of 



64 THE SCHOOL OF ABRAHAM 

parents, and no disobedience on the part of chil- 
dren." His was not a school where theory alone 
was taught, but the practical was emphasized. In 
studying political science they formed the nucleus 
of a divine government; in the study of finances, 
they actually made the money and raised the 
flocks which brought recognition from surrounding 
nations. ' ' The unswerving integrity, the benevo- 
lence and unselfish courtesy, which had won the 
admiration of kings, were displayed in the home.'' 
_,- The influence of country life and direct 

school was contact with nature, in contrast with the 
the begin- enervating influence of the city with its 
ning of a idolatrous teaching and artificial meth- 
ods, developed a hardy race, a people 
of faith whom God could use to lay the foun- 
dation for the Israelitish nation. We see, then, 
that when God founds a nation, he lays that foun- 
dation in a school. The nation of which Abra- 
ham and his followers formed the beginning, 
prefigured the earth redeemed, where Christ will 
reign as King of kings. The education of the 
school of Abraham symbolized Christian education. 
** If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, 
and heirs according to the promise," not only of 



LOT AND WORLDLY SCHOOLS 6$ 

the kingdom, but of the education which prepares 
the inhabitants for that kingdom. 

As faith was the method employed in teaching 
in the days of the patriarch, so in the schools of 
to-day faith must be the motive for work, the ave- 
nue to the fountain of wisdom. There are to-day 
those who can not harmonize their feehngs and 
their ideas of education with the plan which God 
has committed to his people. Likewise in the 
days of Abraham there was at least one family 
which withdrew from the influence of the school. 
Lot had felt the effects of the teach- 
Lot chose jj^g ^f Abraham, but through the influ- 
a worldly 
school ence of his wife, ' ' a semsh, irreligious 

woman," he left the altar where they 
once worshiped together, and moved into the 
city of Sodom. ''The marriage of Lot, and his 
choice of Sodom for a home, were the first links 
in a chain of events fraught with evil to the 
world for many generations." Had he alone 
suffered, we would not need to follow the his- 
tory; but the choice of a new home threw his 
children into the schools of the heathen; pride 
and love of display were fostered, marriage with 
Sodomites was a natural consequence, and their 

5 



66 THE SCHOOL OF ABRAHAM 

final destruction in the burning city was the ter- 
rible but inevitable result. 

* * When Lot entered Sodom, he fully intended 
to keep himself free from iniquity, and to com- 
mand his household after him. But he signally 
failed. The corrupting influences about him had 
an effect upon his own faith, and his children's 
connection with the inhabitants of Sodom bound 
up his interests in a measure with theirs." 

The statement is a familiar one, that schools 
should be established where an education dif- 
fering from that of the world can be given, 
because parents are unable to counteract the 
influence of the schools of the world. The ex- 
perience of Lot is a forcible reminder of the 
truth of the statement. And the injunction to 
** remember Lot's wife," should serve as a warn- 
ing to Christians against flocking into the cities 
to give children an education. The words of 
Spalding are true: "Live not in a great city, 
for a great city is a mill which grinds all grain 
into flour. Go there to get money or to preach 
repentance, but go not there to make thyself a 
nobler man." 



EDUCATION IN THE CITIES ^y 

The two systems of education are nowhere 
more vividly portrayed than in the experiences 
of Abraham and Lot. Education in the tents 
of Abraham, under the guidance of the Spirit of 
Jehovah, brought eternal life. Education in the 
schools of Sodom brought eternal death. This 
was not an unnatural thing. You can not find 
here any arbitrary work on the part of God. 
To partake of the fruit of the tree of life, 
imparts life. But of the tree of knowledge of 
good and evil it has been said, ' ' In the day 
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." 

The system of education revealed to Abra- 
ham, would, if fully carried out, have placed 
Israel on a plane of existence above the nations 
of the world. It was a spiritual education, reach- 
ing the soul by a direct appeal to faith, and 
would have placed the people of God as teach- 
ers of nations. Not a few only were intended 
to teach, but the nation as a whole was to 
teach other nations. The second Israel will 
occupy a similar position, and they will be 
brought to that position by means of Christian 
education. 



VI 

EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

* * Therefore sprang there even of one, and 

him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the 

sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the 

seashore innumerable. ' ' As God dealt with the 

one man, so He dealt with the nation. As He had 

led the man from a lowly plane to an exalted 

position, so He led the nation until they stood a 

spectacle to the whole world. He chose them not 

because of their great numbers, but, taking the 

fewest of men. He wished to show to the world 

what could be done by the power of love. 

This small people, however, were in- 

israel a tended to lead the world, and lead it in 

peculiar ^ ^ , ^, 

DeoDle every sense of the word. That they 

might lead instead of being led, He made 
them a pecuHar people unto Himself, giving them 
in the first place the rite of circumcision, which 
put a barrier forever between the believer in the 
God of Israel and all the nations of the world. 
This separation was for a purpose. The fact that 

68 



PLANES OF EXISTENCE 69 

they were to be peculiar in the eyes of the other 

nations was merely a precautionary step, not a 

thing of importance in itself. God had a mission 

for the nation; and in order that it might be 

accomplished, every effort must be bent in that 

direction. Oneness of purpose is a divine law; 

and that Israel might lead, Israel must occupy a 

position in advance of all other peoples. 

Men live on various planes. There are 

those so constituted physically as to be 
existence ^ "^ *^ 

content with the gratification of physical 
wants and desires. These can readily be led by 
men who live on a mental plane; for mind has 
ever been recognized as superior to matter, so 
that without knowing it, the physically strong 
yields to his mental superior. Almost uncon- 
scious of his power, the man on the mental 
plane guides and controls those on the physical 
plane; he can not help it. It is a natural law; 
the one leads, the other follows. Two individ- 
uals, one living in one of these spheres and 
the other in the sphere above, will never con- 
tend on account of principle; for the man phys- 
ically organized finds it natural to follow the 
dictates of the other. This is, and always has 



;o EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

been, the condition of society. Nature herself 
singles out the leaders. They are born, not made, 
for leadership. They are the few, it is true; the 
masses always prefer to be led. 

But it was not as mere mental leaders that God 
called Israel. There is above the mental a still 
higher plane, the ladder to reach which is scaled 
by very few. As the numbers decrease while 
passing from the physical to the mental plane, so 
they decrease yet more in passing from the mental 
to the spiritual plane. 

How men ^^^ reaches this highest plane of exist- 
reach the ence only by faith. It require constant 
spiritual self-denial and continual development. 
p ane j^^ reality it is living as seeing Him who 

is invisible. The physical man depends almost 
entirely on knowledge gained through the senses. 
The mentally developed depends upon reason. 
Many combine these two natures, and such indi- 
viduals are guided by the sense of reason just in 
proportion as the two natures are developed. 
Knowledge as a result of sense perceptions and 
finite reason capture the majority of mankind. 
The life of faith, the walking with God, takes in 
the few. 



ISRAEL TO TEACH THE WORLD n 

Do you see why God chose a small 
should people ? He chose them, as a nation, 
live on to be priests or teachers unto Himself. 
the spir- As individuals, and as a nation, Israel 
ua p ane ^^^ ^^ stand upon the spiritual plane, 
attaining and maintaining the position by a life of 
faith. Standing there, it would be in accordance 
with the natural law for all on the lower planes to 
yield obedience. As the mental controls the phys- 
ical without any friction, so the spiritual controls 
all others. Therefore (for this reason) said the 
Lord, ** I have taught you statutes and judgments. 
. . . Keep therefore and do them; for this is your 
wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the 
nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and 
say, Surely this great nation is a wise and under- 
standing people. " ^ 

Israel as Statutes in themselves can not command 
teachers respect for any people, but God gave 
of the Israel a manner of life which linked 

^^^ them with Himself. Living on a spirit- 

ual plane, all the world looked to them for guid- 
ance. As one can not reach up and help those 
above him, but must come from above and lift 
others to himself, so Israel was pointed to a life 

iDeut. 4:5, 6. 



72 EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

which made others follow in spite of themselves, 
while at the same time they were following what 
they knew to be the truth. This is the exalted- 
position which truth has ever held. 

Granting it clear that Israel would lead 
Peculiarity ^ 

deoended ^^ virtue of the plane of existence upon 

upon the which they stood, and that this was 
system of attained by a Hfe of faith, it is easily 
e uca on g^gj^ ^^ly there was marked out for the 
nation a system of education differing as com- 
pletely from the systems of the other nations of 
the world as the spiritual life differs from a purely 
physical or a strictly mental existence. It made it 
impossible for any mingling of systems to take 
place without the utter ruin of the spiritual; for 
as soon as this came down to the level of either of 
the others, it ceased to be spiritual, and lost its 
power to lead. 

Should Israel attempt to adopt the 
Result of r r 

mixture education of surrounding nations, that 

in educa- moment her education would become 

tional papal in character, for it would then be 

ys ems ^ combination of the divine with the 

worldly. If a man-made theocracy, a church and 

state government, is papal in principle, the divine 



RESULT OF MIXED EDUCATION 73 

and the worldly combined in educational systems 
is no less a papal principle. Israel formed such a 
combination more than once, but with the results 
recorded in Ps. 106 : 34-38: ''They mingled among 
the heathen, and learned their works. And they 
served their idols: which were a snare unto them. 
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters 
unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the 
blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom 
they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan." 

Truth and error never form a compound, although 
they may be mingled. The union of the two never 
produces truth, and the end is death. Truth 
amalgamated with error, as gold with mercury, lies 
dormant until released. Israel could not posi- 
tively forsake her God-given forms of education 
without relinquishing her place as leader of nations. 
Destined to be the head and not the tail, she im- 
mediately reversed her position when she adopted 
a mixed system. 

„ , ., The education which was outlined for 

Spiritual 

nature of ^^® children of Israel was soul-culture, 
their edu= pure and simple. Its object was to 
cation develop the soul which is God in man; 
and Divinity so planned that every true Jew 



74 EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

should be a God-man. Education was to de- 
velop the spark of divinity bestov/ed at birth, 
and it was the privilege of every Jew to have, 
as did that One Jew, Christ, the Spirit with- 
out measure. 

Let us see, then, what the plan was which 
would take the newborn babe, and follow him 
through life, making him one unit in a nation of 
spiritual beings. God recognized prenatal influ- 
ence, and so gave directions and laws concerning 
the life of the parents. This is illustrated in the 
story of Hannah and the wife of Manoah, in 
Elizabeth, and in Mary the mother of Jesus. 

In the early history of the nation, **Edu- 
^^ '*' cation," says Painter, *'was restricted 

schools 111 r 1 

to the family, m which the father was 
the principal teacher. There were no popular 
schools nor professional teachers. Yet the instruc- 
tion of the Jew . . . embraced a vast number 
of particulars."^ Hinsdale says: ''Jewish education 
began with the mother. What the true Jewish 
mother, considered as a teacher, was, we know 
from both the Testaments and from many other 
sources. The very household duties that she per- 

2 " History of Education," page 29, 



HOME AND SYNAGOGUE SCHOOLS 75 

formed molded her children in accordance with the 
national discipline. * The Sabbath meal, the kin- 
dling of the Sabbath lamp, and the setting apart 
of a portion of the dough from the bread for the 
household — these are but instances with which 
every Taphy as he clung to his mother's skirts, 
must have been famihar. ' The bit of parchment 
fastened to the doorpost, on which the name of 
the Most High was written, . . . would be among 
the first things to arrest his attention. 

** It was in the school of the mother's knee that 
the stories of patriarchs and prophets, of statesmen 
and warriors, of poets and sages, of kings and 
judges, wise men and patriots, and of the great 
Law-giver Himself, — the whole forming the very 
best body of material for the purposes of child- 
nurture found in any language, — were told and 
retold until they became parts of the mind itself." 
He then mentions the case of Timothy, and adds: 
**As teachers of their children, the women of 
every country may learn lessons from the matrons 
of Israel." ^ This was evidently the original plan, 
and had the families proved faithful to the trust, 
the greater part, if not all, of the education would 

^" Jesus as a Teacher," pages 28-30. 



76 EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

have been in the family school. Always, however, 
as long as Israel was a nation, the child (and the 
term covered the first twelve or fifteen years) was 
under the instruction of the parents. 

From the home school we follow the 

Jewish 

Jewish child to the synagogue or church 

schools school. Moses was instructed by the 
Lord to make every priest a teacher, so 
the nation had a whole tribe of teachers. As every 
town had its synagogue, so ''a town in which 
there is no school must perish." Quoting again 
from Hinsdale: ''The children were gathered for 
instruction in the synagogues and schoolhouses, 
where the teacher, generally the Chazzan, or 
officer of the synagogue, 'imparted to them the 
precious knowledge of the law, with constant 
adaptation to their capacity, with unwearied pa- 
tience, intense earnestness, strictness tempered by 
kindness, but, above all, with the highest object of 
their training ever in view. To keep children from 
all contact with vice ; to train them to gentleness^ 
even when bitterest wrong had been received; to 
show sin in its repulsiveness, rather than to terrify 
by its consequences; to train to strict truthful- 
ness; to avoid all that might lead to disagreeable 



SCHOOLS OF THE PROPHETS // 

or indelicate thoughts; and to do all this without 
showing partiality, without either undue severity 
or laxity of discipHne, with judicious increase of 
study and work, with careful attention to thor- 
oughness in acquiring knowledge — all this and 
more constituted the ideal set before the teacher, 
and made his office of such high esteem in 
Israel.' "* These teachers took the youth at the 
most critical period of their development. And 
how thoroughly they understood the needs of the 
developing niinds! 

In the days of Samuel we read, for the 

first time, of the schools of the prophets, 
of the t- r ' 

prophets where young men were gathered to- 
gether for the study of the law, of music, 
poetry, and history, and of the various trades. 
The name School of the Prophets would indicate 
the spirituaHty of their work, and reference to the 
time of Elijah and EHsha and the experience of 
Saul would prove the truth of the inference. 

Concerning the subjects taught we are 

" ®® " not left in ignorance, if we study the his- 
Jewish . , 1 ^1 

. - tory of the people. Thus, quotmg agam 

from Painter: ''The Hebrew parent was 

not only to impart oral instruction to his children, 

* "Jesus as a Teacher," page 31. 



78 EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

but to teach them also reading and writing. As 

he was to inscribe the words of the Lord upon his 

doorposts and gates, he must himself have learned 

to write; and, as he wrote them for his children, 

they must have been taught to read. Hence, it 

appears that the ability to read and write was 

general among the ancient Jews; and, in this 

particular, they surpassed every other nation of 

antiquity."^ Hinsdale says: ''From the teaching 

of the alphabet, or writing in the primary school, 

to the farthest limit of instruction in the academies 

of the rabbis, all was marked by extreme care, 

wisdom, accuracy, and moral and religious purpose 

as the ultimate object." * 

** Up to ten years of age the Bible 

, , was the sole text-book; from ten to fif- 
as a text- 
book teen the Mischna, or traditional law, was 

used; and after that the pupil was ad- 
mitted to the discussions of the rabbinical schools. 
So extensive a course of study, however, was 
taken only by those who showed decided aptitude 
for learning. Bible study began with the book 
of Leviticus; then came other parts of the Pen- 

^ " History of Education," page 28. 
^ "Jesus as a Teacher," page 30. 



STUDIES IN JEWISH SCHOOLS 79 

tateuch; next the prophets, and finally the Hagi- 

ography . ' ' ^ 

In working for this chosen people, God 

cured physical infirmities with the same 
ology ^ ^ 

ease that he healed a sin-sick soul; and 

with the laws for spiritual growth were given direc- 
tions for the preservation of health. Every priest 
was likewise a physician, and the laws concerning 
the use of simple, healthful foods, proper breath- 
ing, ventilation, the use of disinfectants, the bath, 
etc., were famiHar to all who read the statutes 
of Jehovah. 

Painter says, concerning other subjects 
taught: '^ Among the potent educa- 
tional agencies of the Jews, that of the 
annual national festivals merits consideration. . . . 
Commemorating important national events, they 
kept the people acquainted with their past history. 
. . . These frequent reunions not only contributed 
to national and religious unity, but they exerted a 
strong educating influence upon the people."^ 

'*The Levites, more than other Hebrews, were 
to study the book of the law ; to preserve and dis- 

' ** Jesus as a Teacher," page 31. 
* " History of Education," page 29. 



8o EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

seminate it in exact copies; to perform the duties 
oi judges and gettealogists, and consequently to be 
theologians, jurists, and historians. ... As the 
priests and Levites were to test the accuracy of 
weights and measures, ... it was necessary that 
they should understand something of mathematics ; 
and as they were to determine and announce the 
movable feasts, new moons, years, and intercalary 
years, they had occasion for the study of astron- 
omy^'' says Jahn. 

Since the schools of the prophets flourished in 
the days of Saul and David, it would not be sur- 
prising if David gained some of his musical skill 
there as well as on the hillside tending sheep, for 
poetry and music formed part of the course of 
instruction in these schools. One author pays high 
tribute to these subjects by saying : '' Greek poetry 
is beautiful; Hebrew poetry is sublime." 

When children were fortified by such 

an education from infancy to manhood, 
Jewish 
education ^* ^^ X\VCi.Q wonder that the influence 

which the nation * ' has exerted upon the 

world is incalculable. It has supplied the basis of 

all true theology; it has given a system of faultless 

morality; and, in Christianity, it has provided the 



EFFECTS OF JEWISH EDUCATION 8i 

most perfect form of religion. The civilization of 
Europe and America can be directly traced to the 
Jews."' 

What might have been the result had the nation 
lived up to its privileges in educational lines is not 
difficult to determine. Earth's history would have 
been shortened by at least two thousand years; for 
the nation would never have gone into bondage, 
and Christ would never have been betrayed. As 
these principles of Christian education are again 
taking hold of people, with what interest must 
the progress of the work be watched by the inhab- 
itants of other worlds, who have seen past failures 
through lack of faith ! That Hebrew education 
tended mainly to a development of the inner man 
instead of giving merely a conglomeration of facts, 
is well expressed by Wines. He says: ''The 
Hebrew law required an early, constant, vigorous, 
and efficient training of the disposition, judgment, 
manners, and habits, both of thought and feeling. 
The sentiments held to be proper to man in society 
were imbibed with the milk of infancy. The man- 
ners considered becoming in adults were sedulously 
imparted in childhood." 

^ " History of Education," page 27. 
6 



82 EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

The education, however, was not only 

„ . . ' moral and intellectual, but physical as 

fold nature ^ -^ 

educated ^^^h for every Jewish boy was taught 

some trade which rendered him self- 
supporting. Nor did wealth or position remove the 
need of this. Paul, who sat at the feet of Gama- 
liel while studying the law, was able to gain a liveli- 
hood as a tentmaker when preaching the gospel. 

There was, however, in it all this one 

thought : all instruction was intended 
ingexem= 
Dlified ^° develop the spiritual nature. It was 

considered the highest honor to become 

a priest (every Jew might have been both priest 

and teacher), and in this office man stood next 

to God. This was wholly a spiritual position, 

and prefigured the work of the Messiah. True, 

Israel as a nation never reached the standard set 

for her, never mounted, as it were, that ladder 

reaching from earth to heaven; and it was left 

for the One Man, the Master of Israel, to bind 

together the two realms of the physical and the 

spiritual. But from time to time men arose in 

the Jewish nation who grasped in a far broader 

sense than the majority, the meaning of true 

education as delivered to the Jews, and who, by 



TRUE TEACHING EXEMPLIFIED 83 

submitting to the educating influence of the Spirit 
of God, were enabled to become leaders of the 
people and representatives of God on earth. Such 
were Moses, Daniel, Job, and Ezekiel, and, to a 
certain extent, all the prophets of Israel. In each 
of these the soul rose above the physical man, 
until it met its parent force in the heart of God. 
This made it possible for Moses to talk face to 
face with the Father, and for Ezekiel to follow 
the angel of revelation to the border land of 
God's home. . 

These men were but enjoying what every man in 
Israel might have experienced had the nation 
remained upon the plane to which they were 
called, receiving their education by faith. One is 
tempted to ask why they fell. The answer is the 
same as to that other question, Why do not we 
arise t They ceased to look upward; faith failed, 
and reason took its place, and instead of leading 
they sought to be like the nations about them. 
Worldly There lay Egypt, with its mighty men, 
systems and the carnal heart longed for some 
ofeduca= of the Egyptian display. To under- 
stand it, we must again consider the 
difference in life and education. Life on the 



84 EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

spiritual plane means whole self-forgetfulness; 
but when carnal desires are heeded, a fall is 
inevitable. Egyptian education was largely on 
the physical basis. It is true that mental heights 
were reached, but only by the few, and those few, 
bound by earth's fetters, were unable to break 
entirely away. The masses, not only in education 
but in religion, were physical, and basely physical. 
The sacred bull was a personification of deity. 
Why ? — Because God, to an Egyptian, was an 
embodiment of lust. All their gods, all their 
rites and ceremonies, every temple wall and reli- 
gious service, breathed the dreadful odor of licen- 
tiousness. Historians state that the priestly class 
knew better. And so they did; but their grasp 
was not that of truth, else they could never have 
been the priests and teachers of such a religion 
or of such a system of education. 

These words, put in the mouth of an ancient 
Egyptian priest, speak truly the spirit of Egyptian 
education. He says: \' I that have seen nigh four- 
score years of misery; ... I that have mastered 
all the arts, sciences, and religion of ancient 
Egypt — a land that was wrinkled with age cen- 
turies before the era of Moses; I that know both 



WORLDLY EDUCATION 85 

all that the priests of Kem ever taught the people, 
and also the higher and more recondite forms of 
ignorance in which the priests themselves believed 
— I verily know nothing! I can scarcely believe 
in anything save universal darknesSy for which 
no day-spring cometh, and universal wretched- 
ness for which there is no cure. O wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this 
death?" 

And yet the Jews would leave that education 
which offered eternal life, for this which the best- 
educated Egyptian might acknowledge to be dark- 
ness and only darkness. It was from this that God 
delivered Israel; but many to-day, claiming to be 
Israel in Spirit, seek still the wisdom and philoso- 
phy of Egypt for themselves and their children. 
Israel could not come in touch with this form of 
life without contamination. Nay, more, she fell 
from her exalted state, and never reached it again. 
' ' Jerusalem was destroyed because the education 
of her children was neglected." 

The ceremonial law given after leaving Sinai, at 
the beginning of that memorable march of forty 
years, was necessary because the nation had lost 
all appreciation of the spiritual in the abstract, and 



86 EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

could gain no idea whatever of God as a Spirit 
except through some appeal to the physical senses. 
This condition was due to the fact that four gen- 
erations had been subject to Egyptian education. 
The plan of types and ceremonies alone 

Israel appealed to the mind. And even in 

at the 

_ this inductive method of teaching, the 

nation seemed slow to learn; for the 
forty years between the Red Sea and Jordan 
served to develop scarcely enough faith to carry 
the people into the promised land. God's law, 
written on the tablets of the heart by the pen 
of faith, appealed to but few. Men ate manna 
from heaven, but knew not that it was the 
token of a crucified Saviour: they drank of water 
flowing constantly from the smitten rock, never 
dreaming that it prefigured the shed blood of the 
dying Son of God. Once settled in Canaan, the 
whole system of education was so planned as to 
teach the child to accept Christ by faith. Some 
grasped this spiritual truth; but a few had eyes 
which saw the things hidden from the multitude, 
because faith was an avenue to the very soul. 

Having the privilege of living by faith, and 
accepting the divine teaching in this its highest 



SOLOMON^S WISDOM 2>7 

form, they preferred the old way, and walked by 
sight. '* Except ye see, ye will not believe; " '* O 
ye of little faith." When we look at what the 
Israelites might have been, and then at what they 
were, there is a feeling of intense pain, for the 
fall is inexpressibly great. By little and little, 
Jehovah strove to reach the higher nature again, 
and bring Israel to its heaven-selected place. 
There was steady progress until the days of Solo- 
mon, whose wisdom outshone that of the great 
men of earth, and Israel as a nation was again on 
the verge of becoming the leading people of the 
world politically, intellectually, and morally. 

Solomon was raised to a position of em- 

SoIomon»s . ^u 4. r ^u 

, . mence among the great men of earth 

because he learned from God the secret 
of true education. His wisdom was not a gift to 
him exclusively, but was offered to all who would 
comply with the educational requirements. Of 
Solomon we read that God gave him a hearing 
ear. His spiritual senses were awakened by faith, 
and he found himself so in harmony with the God 
of nature that all the works of the Creator were 
read by him as an open book. His wisdom seemed 
great in contrast with that of other Jews merely 



88 EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

because others failed to live up to their privileges. 
God desired the whole nation to stand before other 
people as Solomon stood before the kings of the 
earth. 

The surprising feature to most students is the 
fact that the system of education given by God 
will, when followed, open to man such material 
benefits. It is not, as it is often accused of being, 
ideal and theoretical, but lacking the practical. 
On the contrary, it is of the most practical nature, 
and opens to its followers all legitimate lines of 
prosperity, placing its devotees above all contest- 
ants. This is seen in the experience of the king 
just mentioned. As a statesman and lawyer, 
Solomon was noted; as a scientist, he excelled 
the scholars of the world; for wealth and splendor, 
the half has not been told; during his reign Jewish 
architecture, as exemplified in the temple, assumed 
such grandeur that it became the model for even 
the aesthetic Greek. In tilling the soil and raising 
fruit it was always intended that Israel should 
excel other nations. ^'^ Youth were trained to fill 
positions of trust, and were taught the practical 
duties of everyday life. Such training was given 

^^ Deuteronomy 28, 



AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 89 

to girls as well as to boys, fitting them to fill 
properly their allotted sphere as housewives and 
mothers in Israel. " 

From the fall which followed this exaltation, 
Israel never recovered. The educational system 
losing its true character, the nation was at last 
carried into captivity. When the Hebrew race 
lost the spirituality of their education, they lost 
everything; for political power, national reputa- 
tion, all, hung upon one thread. * ' Jerusalem was 
destroyed because the education of her children 
was neglected." This destruction did not come 
suddenly. There was a decline, then a forward 
lunge, and another relapse, each time the fall 
being greater and the reaction weaker. 

Several times a halt was made, and the 

national life was prolone^ed by a return 
cational r & .; 

reform ^^ *^^ prescribed methods of education. 
Jehoshaphat, for instance, appointed Le- 
vites as teachers to the different cities of Israel, 
and, as a result, "The fear of the Lord fell upon 
all the kingdoms of the lands that were round 
about Judah, so that they made no war. "^^ Had 
the reform been carried on which was then begun, 

» Proverbs 31, ^^ ggg 2 Chron, 17: 6-13. 



90 EDUCATION IN ISRAEL 

the whole national history would have been 
changed. 

Another noticeable fact is that release from 
bondage was always heralded by two reforms. 
For instance, before deliverance from Babylon, 
Daniel was raised up to give the people instruc- 
tion in health reform and educational reform. 
These two always accompany each other. The 
one affects the body, preparing it to become the 
temple of the Holy Ghost; the other turns the 
mind toward truth, that the Spirit of God may 
think through it. A body purified by right living, 
and a mind trained according to the laws of Chris- 
tian education, brings an experience such as Daniel 
had.^^ That he lived on a plane above the ma- 
jority of men is evident; for '*I, Daniel, alone 
saw the vision: for the men that were with me 
saw not the vision." What to Daniel was the 
voice of God those whose ears were not in tune 
with the Infinite heard as thunder or as an earth- 
quake. It had been the privilege of all to see and 
hear as Daniel saw and heard, but they chose a 
coarser life, a slower vibratory existence, where 
the mental strain was less, and the heart strings 
were looser. It was easier to keep in tune with 

13 Daniel lo. 



ISRAEL'S EDUCATION WAS CHRISTIAN 91 

Egypt or Babylon than with the God of heaven. 
And when the Son of Man was born, he found it 
hard to select even a small company whose lives 
were in harmony with His own. 

Israel's education was a spiritual education. 
Her King was to set up a spiritual kingdom in 
the hearts of a people spiritualized by the pres- 
ence of truth. It was the same system which 
had been delivered by Christ to Adam; the same 
by which Abraham was taught; and what was not 
accomplished in the ages past will be accomplished 
by Christian education in the days preparatory to 
His second coming. 



VII 

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF THE 
PAGAN WORLD 

God called Israel to become a nation of teach- 
ers, and gave them statutes and judgments which, 
when made the basis of the educational systems, 
tended to make of the nation a peculiar peo- 
ple, a nation of priests, a spiritual race, thereby 
constituting them the leading people of the world. 
From what did he call them ? — '' The Lord hath 
taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron 
furnace, out of Egypt." ^ And again, ''Out of 
Egypt have I called my Son."^ Egypt stands as 
a personification of the heathen world, and its 
very name means darkness. The dark mantle of 
paganism has ever obstructed the bright shining 
of the light of truth. 

As Israel's power, physical, intellectual, and 
political, was derived from, and depended upon, 
her system of education, so it would be but 
natural to suppose that the opposing power of 

iDeut. 4:20. 2 Matt. 2:15. 

92 



PAGANISM SELF WORSHIP 93 

paganism would possess educational ideas, and be 
controlled by a system of instruction in harmony 
with its practices. Or, to state it more logically, 
we necessarily conclude that the pagan world 
rested upon a distinct system of education, and 
that the customs and practices of pagan nations 
were the result of the educational ideas which 
they advocated. 

The God-given system, as found among the 
Hebrews, rested upon faith, and developed the 
spiritual side of man's nature, making it possi- 
ble in the highest sense for divinity to unite 
with humanity. The result of this union of the 
human and the divine — the Immanuel — is the 
highest creation of the universe. It in itself was 
a power before which men and demons bowed. 
As to paganism and its system of edu- 
cation, what was the religion of the 
self-wor- , , ^ , , , . , 

shio pagan world ? and what were the ideas 

it strove to propagate ? First, it placed 
above God the study and worship of self. Christ 
is the ''true light that lighteth every man that 
Cometh into the world." All men have, then, 
at some time in life, light enough to lead them 
to truth, for the gospel ** reveals a divine anger 



Paganism 



94 THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

from heaven upon all wickedness and iniquity of 
men who pervert the true into the false ; because 
the knowledge of God is clear within themselves, 
God having revealed it to them; for from the 
creation of the world His invisible attributes 
might be discovered from the created facts, — 
that is, His unseen power and Godhead. Con- 
sequently, they are inexcusable."^ 

Men, therefore, who of necessity have light 
may reject that light, and they then become 
pagan. Paul, in the first chapter of his Roman 
letter, states a universal law in that when truth 
is rejected, error takes its place. The quotation 
is again taken from Fenton's translation, because 
the wording, by differing slightly from the author- 
ized version, stimulates thought: ''Because, know- 
ing God, they did not honor Him as a God, or 
rejoice, but trifled in their augmentations, and 
darkened their senseless hearts; professing to be 
philosophers, they played the fool, and trans- 
formed the glory of the imperishable God into 
an image of perishable man, and birds ! and 
beasts ! and reptiles ! And, therefore, God aban- 
doned them in the lusts of their hearts to filthi- 

8 Rom. I : 18-20, Fenton's translation. 



PROGRESS TOWARD SELF WORSHIP 95 

ness, to dishonor their own bodies to themselves; 
they having changed the truth of God into false- 
hood, by honoring and serving the creature 
contrary to the Creator, who is truly blessed 
in all ages."* 

Having turned from the worship of Jehovah 
to the worship of man, then bird, and beast, and 
reptile, we find associated with worship the gross- 
est forms of licentiousness. This is stated by Paul 
in the first chapter of Romans. The thought which 
must be borne in mind is that man turns from God 
and worships himself. He can conceive of no 
power higher than his own mind, no form more 
lofty than his own. His first idol is the human 
form, male or female. He endows this with 
human passions, for he knows no heart but his 
own. By beholding he becomes changed into the 
same passionate creature; a beast becomes the 
personification of his deity, and the sacred bull his 
god. Everything about the worship is gross, and 
birds, crocodiles, and all sorts of reptiles become 
objects of worship. This is Egypt. This, in fact, 
pictures the final worship in any country which 
turns from Christ and places faith in man. 

* Idem^ verses 2 1— 2£. 



96 THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

There are a variety of forms in worship, as 
there are a variety of complexions in the men of 
different countries; but it is one and the same plan 
throughout, resting upon one system of educa- 
tion, producing the same results, whether traced 
in the proud Babylonish court, the loathsome 
filth of Egypt, Greece with its intellectual pride 
and culture, in Roman law, or in the more modern 
European countries. Paganism is the green-eyed 
monster, crouching on the southern shore of the 
Mediterranean, whose body follows the course of 
the Nile, whose paws reach both east and west, 
and whose breath has poisoned the atmosphere 
of all Europe. Into those eyes men have gazed 
expecting to find wisdom. It was but the glare of 
the demon, as the tiger's gaze at night. 
Eff Dtian ^^^ Egypt itself, it blotted out all indi- 
religion vidual rights, placing the masses as a 
and common herd writhing in superstition 

education ^^der the hands of a tyrannical king and 
a scheming priesthood. It was indeed **an iron 
furnace," as God had called it, and as Israel had 
found by sad experience. It was tyranny in 
government; it was still more bitter tyranny in 
education and religion. As well might one strive 



EGYPTIAN EDUCATION 97 

to move the pyramids, or get words from the silent 

sphinx, as to hope to change the life in Egypt by 

means of anything presented in Egypt. 

Of Egyptian education, Jahn says: The 

' * priests were a separate tribe, . . . 
tionofthe ^ ^ 

senses ^^^ they performed not only the services 

of religion but the duties of all civil 
offices to which learning was necessary. They 
therefore devoted themselves in a peculiar manner 
to the cultivation of tJie sciences. . . . They 
studied natural philosophy, natural history, medi- 
cine, mathematics (particularly astronomy and 
geometry), history, civil polity, and jurispru- 
dence." Place this course of study by the side 
of Jewish education, and you notice in the latter 
the Bible and such subjects as tended to develop 
spirituaHty, those things which faith alone could 
grasp; while the education of the Egyptian had an 
entirely intellectual basis, and dealt with those 
subjects which appeal to the senses and to human 
reason. 

When this system as a system is traced in 
other countries, especially in Greece, this charac- 
teristic becomes startHng in the extreme; and if 
reference is made to it often in contrast to the 
7 



98 THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

Jewish system, it is because herein Hes the pivot 

upon which the history of nations revolves. It is 

either faith or reason to-day, as it has been faith 

opposed to reason throughout the ages. In place 

of reason use the word philosophy, for that was a 

favorite expression among the pagans. 

The gospel has stood opposed to the 

*^^" philosophy of the world since the begin- 
philos-^ 
oDh foil ^^^§5 hence we read, '* For the reason of 

the Cross is certainly folly to the repro- 
bate, but to us, the saved, it is a divine power; 
for it is written, ' I will destroy the philosophy of 
the philosophers, and upset the cleverness of the 
clever. ' Where is the philosopher } where is the 
scholar.? where is the investigator of this age.^^ 
Has not God made the philosophy of this world 
folly.'* For when in the divine philosophy the 
world did not perceive God through the philosophy, 
it pleased God to save the faithful by means of the 
folly of preaching. As, however, Jews demand a 
sign, and Greeks seek after philosophy, we now 
proclaim a crucified Christ, a certain offense to the 
Jews, and joke to the heathen, but to the called, 
whether Jews or Greeks, — Christ a divine power 
and a divine philosophy. . . . For observe your 



WORLDLY WISDOM FOLLY 99 

calling, brothers, that there are not xn2J\y fashion- 
able philosophers, nor many powerful men, nor 
many of high birth. "^ 

It is this divine philosophy which the spiritually 
minded grasp, and which is the sum and substance 
of their education. It is this human philosophy, 
or natural philosophy, which in the sight of God 
is folly, that Egypt and her followers adopted. 
Minds delving into human philosophy never find 
God, nor do they approach the realms of divine 
philosophy. There is a divine philosophy, and it is 
grasped by faith; and there is a human philosophy, 
a creation of the human mind, a science formu- 
lated from deductions which appeal to natural 
senses. But the man, wisest in human learning 
alone, remains still a fool in the eyes of God, 
for the inner man has not been reached. 

Our study of pagan education is not, 

however, confined to the Nile Valley. 
wisdom "^ 

Indeed, some of the most interesting 
phases, some of the strongest features of the sys- 
tem, were developed elsewhere. Egypt was the 
cradle, but Greece and Rome were fields in which 
these ideas gained strength. We read: ''The 
ancients looked upon Egypt as a school of wisdom. 

^i Cor. I : 18-26, Fenton's translation. 



lOO THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

Greece sent thither illustrious philosophers and 
lawgivers — Pythagoras and Plato, Lycurgus and 
Solon — to complete their studies. " ''Hence, even 
the Greeks in ancient times were accicstomed to 
borrow their politics and their learning from the 
Egyptians." * 

Of the four men mentioned, we look 

upon Lycurgus as the founder of the 
education 

and Egypt spartan government, noted for the phys- 
ical training it gave and the utter sub- 
jection of the individual to the state. Every 
historian recognized this as due to the system of 
education introduced by Lycurgus, and followed 
out by his people. The newborn babe was ad- 
judged worthy of life or death by a council of the 
state, the decision being based on the physical 
condition of the infant. At the age of seven the 
child became the property of the state, and so 
remained until sixty. It was more exclusively a 
physical or purely secular education than that 
offered elsewhere on earth. 

The prosperity of Athens, where was 

' ' wrous^ht out the most perfect form of 
and Egypt .... 

heathen civilization," dates from the 

time of Solon, who, as we have already learned, 

^ " History of Education," pages 32, 34. 



PLATO IN EDUCATION lOI 

finished his education in Egypt. In these two 
men we see the leaning toward the physical side, 
made so prominent in pagan education. ' ' The 
course of study in the school of Pythagoras em- 
braced mathematics, physics, metaphysics, and 
medicine. Especial prominence was given mathe- 
matics, which Pythagoras regarded as the noblest 
science." Here is revealed the inclination of the 
pagan education toward the purely intellectual. 
Of Plato we shall read later. 

If Egypt offered ground for the germi- 

gyp an nation of the seed of pagan education, 
education 

uni ersal ^^^^^e brought the plant to its seed- 
producing state; and Rome, acting as 
the wind with the thistle down, scattered pagan 
education broadcast. Of Rome we read: ''It 
gathered into its arms the elements of Grecian 
and Oriental culture, and as its end drew nigh, 
it scatters them freely over the rest of Europe. 
Rome has been the bearer of culture to the 
modern world. "^ 

In order to understand the fertility of 

the seeds of pagan education, it is nec- 
education 

essary to regard with care the master 

mind of that system, and this we find in Plato. 

'''* History of Education," page 65, 



102 THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

Emerson, in his ** Representative Men," defines 
his position and the position of his philosophy in 
the pagan and in the so-called Christian world, 
making the teachings of this Greek, schooled in 
Egypt, crowd out the Word of God itself. He 
says: **Out of Plato come all things that are 
still written and debated among men of thought. 
. . . The Bible of the learned for twenty-two 
hundred years, every brisk young man, who says 
in succession fine things to each reluctant gener- 
ation ( . . . Erasmus, Bruno, Locke, Rousseau, 
Coleridge) is some reader of Plato." 

That is saying that for twenty-two hundred 
years Plato and his educational system, known 
everywhere as Platonism, have taken the place 
of the Bible to the leading minds of the world. 
** Plato is philosophy, and philosophy, Plato, — at 
once the glory and the shame of mankind, since 
neither Saxon nor Roman have availed to add 
any idea to his categories, " continues Emerson. 
* * No wife, no children had he, and the thinkers 
of all civilized nations are his posterity, and are 
tinged with his mind. How many great men 
nature is incessantly sending up out of night, to 
be his men, — Platonists !'^ 



PLATO'S INFLUENCE 103 

Then he gives a list of illustrious names who 
have stood for learning in the various ages of 
the world's history, and continues: ''Calvinism 
is in his [Plato's] Phcedo: Christianity is in it." 
How Httle this writer knew of the power of the 
truth as given by Christ ! Doubtless he formed 
his judgment from professedly Christian teachers. 
But he continues: ''Mahometanism draws all its 
philosophy, in its handbook of morals, . . 
from him [Plato]. Mysticism finds in Plato all 
its texts. This citizen of a town in Greece is 
no villager nor patriot. An Englishman reads, 
and says, ' How English ! ' a German, ' How 
Teutonic ! ' an Italian, ' How Roman and how 
Greek ! ' " And to show that the recognition 
of Plato is not stopped by the Atlantic, our 
versatile New England writer says: ** Plato 
seems, to a reader in New England, an Amer- 
ican genius." Has the reader any suspicion 
that our American educational institutions may 
have recognized the universality of this master 
of philosophy, and adopted into their curricula 
his system of reasoning.'* One traces, without 
the aid of magnifiers, the thread of pagan phi- 
losophy throughout the American schools. 



I04 THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

*'As our Jewish Bible has implanted itself in 
the table talk and household life of every man 
and woman in the European and American 
nations, so the writings of Plato have preoccu- 
pied every school of learnings every lover of 
thought y every church, every poet, — making it 
impossible to think, on certain levels, except 
through him. He stands between the truth 
and every man's mind, and has almost im- 
pressed language and the primary forms of 
thought with his name and seal. . . . Here is 
the germ of that Europe we know so well, in 
its long history of arts and arms; here are all 
its traits, already discernible in the mind of 
Plato. . . . How Plato came thus to be Europe, 
and philosophy, and almost literature, is the prob- 
lem for us to solve. "^ 

One ceases to wonder that, surrounded as was 
the Corinthian church by this philosophy and in 
daily touch with these ideas which have swayed 
the world, Paul wrote to it against accepting the 
philosophy of men in place of that divine philoso- 
phy which he and other apostles were preaching 
through the cross of Christ. '' When I came to 

^Emerson, "Representative Men," 



EVOLUTION AND PLATONISM I05 

you, brethren," writes the apostle, *'l came not 
proclaiming the testimony of God with grand rea- 
soning or philosophies^ for I decided to know 
nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and He 
was crucified. . . . And my thought and my state- 
ment was not clothed in captivating philosophical 
reasons ; but, in demonstrated spirit and power, so 
that your trust might not be in human philosophy, 
but in Divine power."® ''Beware lest any man 
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after 
the tradition of men, after the elements [margin] 
of the world, and not after Christ. " ^^ 
Evolution S^^i'^^' then, that the Platonic system of 
the basis education has exerted, and is still exert- 
of Plato- ing, such an influence over the minds 
" *"' of men, it behooves us to ascertain the 

basic principles of his system. What did the man 
believe, and what did he teach } Quotations have 
already been given showing that he is the father of 
modern philosophy. Emerson defines this philoso- 
phy. He says : ' ' Philosophy is the account which 
the human mind gives to itself of the constitution 
of the worlds All attempts, then, to account for 
the constitution of the world when a ' ' thus saith 

9 1 Cor. 2 : 1-5, Fenton's trans, i^Col. 2 : 8, 



io6 THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

the Lord," is refused, is philosophy. And philoso- 
phy is Plato. 

' ' Through faith we understand that the worlds 
were framed by the word of God, so that things 
which are seen were not made of things which do 
appear."" But Platonism is the mi7td trying to 
account to itself for the constitution of the worlds. 
How, think you, did the author of this philosophy 
go about to account for things which can be 
grasped by fai^k alo7ie ? ' * To Plato belongs the 
honor of first subjecting education to a scientific 
examination, ' ' says Painter. Here began the lab- 
oratory studies which have been continued by 
Huxley, Darwin, and others. And thus from 
Plato Europe and America have gained their ideas 
of evolution. Plato brought these ideas from 
Egypt and Babylon, and the schools of to-day 
follow this man-made philosophy. Our men of 
intellect write text-books which they place in the 
hands of youth, teaching them to account for the 
constitution of the worlds according to the reason- 
ing of men's minds. 

A few more thoughts concerning Plato, and we 
shall see what evolution is, and where it is now 
found. Aristotle, the illustrious pupil of Plato, 

"Heb. II :i3. 



LOGIC AND PLATO 107 

** created the science of logic," ''the science of 
exact reasoning," as Webster puts it. Says Emer- 
son: ''The balanced soul came." "His daring 
imagination gives him the more solid grasp of 
facts. . . . According to the old sentence, ' If 
Jove should descend to the earth, he would speak 
in the style of Plato.' " This last, the Christian 
can readily beheve; but the Son of man used an 
entirely different speech, although Plato antedates 
his birth over four hundred years, and was, at the 
time of the advent of Christ, the ruler of the 
intellectual world. 

' ' In reading logarithms, one is not more secure 
than following Plato in his flights." Plato himself 
is given credit for saying: "There is a science 
of sciences — I call it Dialectic — which is the 
intellect discriminating the false and the true.'' 
There is indeed a science of sciences — the science 
of salvation. There is verily a way of judging 
between the false and the true, for the Spirit of 
truth will guide you into all truth. But the human 
brain can never do this. It was this same logic, 
Plato's "science of sciences," which was given 
such prominence in the papal schools and all 
medieval education. 



io8 THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

Here stand the two systems side by side, 

the one e^uided by human reason, the 
in modern . 

schools other by the Spirit of the living God. 

Remember that the world bows to Plato; 
and, raising its hands in an attitude of worship, 
lays at his feet its tribute, its dearest idol, — its 
educational system. Chambers's Encyclopedia, 
art. ''Plato," shows conclusively that this Greek 
philosopher holds still his exalted position in liter- 
ary circles and among educators. It says: ''Since 
the French Revolution particularly, the study of 
Plato has been pursued with renewed vigor in Ger- 
many, France, and England;' and many of our 
distinguished authors, without expressly profess- 
ing Platonism, — as Coleridge, Wordsworth, Mrs. 
Browning, Ruskin, etc., — have formed a strong 
and growing party of adherents, who could find no 
common banner U7tder which they could at once so 
conveniently- and so honorably muster as that of 
Plato:' 

Christians are to be gathered under the ensign 
of Christ; ^^ but many educators of to-day find "no 
common banner under which they could so con- 
veniently and so honorably muster as that of 
Plato." Christianity or paganism, which shall it 

i^Isa. II : 12. 



PLATONISM IN MODERN SCHOOLS 109 

be in the education of Protestant children of to- 
day? How did it happen that the ideas of Plato 
were so generally accepted throughout Europe ? 
The article in Chambers's Encyclopedia, from 
which the foregoing quotation is made, tells in the 
following words how the early Christian church 
became contaminated by the teachings of Plato: 
"The works of Plato were extensively ^/"^^^^V^ ^j 
the Church Fathers, one of whom joyfully rec- 
ognizes, in the great teacher of the academy, the 
schoolmaster who, in the fullness of time, was 
destined to educate the heathen for Christ, as 
Moses did the Jews." If the early church adopted 
the educational system of Plato, one does not 
wonder that by the Middle Ages Europe was 
ready for Greek philosophy. 

In the year 145^, the Turks captured 
Platonism \ ^^^' ^ 

in EuroDe Constantinople, and * ' many Greek schol- 

and ars took refuge in Italy. The times 

America were propitious for them," Let it be 

remembered that this was one of the mileposts in 

the history of the Dark Ages. The Latin tongue 

had been the universal language during the days of 

papal supremacy. There was an uprising against 

the tyranny of the papacy over thought, and the 



no THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

modern tongues began to appear. In order to 
stem the tide without losing ground, the papacy 
turned the attention of men's minds to Greek 
classics rather than to the Bible of Wyclif or 
Erasmus, and a little later to the writings of 
Luther. Indeed, for the papacy the ' ' times were 
propitious." 

* ' Noble and wealthy patronage was not lacking, 
and under its fostering care they (the Greeks) 
became for a time the teachers of Europe. T/tej/ 
succeeded in kindling a remarkable enthusiasm for 
antiquity. Manuscripts were collected, transla- 
tions were made, academies were established, and 
libraries were founded. Several of the popes 

became generous patrons of ancient learning 

Eager scholars from England, France, and Ger- 
many sat at the feet of Italian masters, in order 
afterward to bear beyond the Alps the precious 
seed of the new culture. " ^^ Painter further gives 
the effects of this spread of Greek classics: ''In 
Italy it tended strongly to paganize its adherents. 
Ardor for antiquity became at last intoxication. 
Infidelity prevailed in the highest ranks of the 
church; Christianity was despised as a supersti- 
tion; immorality abounded in the most shameful 

13 t< History of Education," page I3i. 



NATURE OF THE CLASSICS III 

forms. The heathenism of Athens was revived in 
Christian Rome." And scholars from England, 
France, and Germany sat at the feet of these 
heathen teachers, drinking in their philosophy, and 
then hastening across the Alps to propagate these 
ideas in the schools for the education of the young. 
This v^as the influence against which the Reforma- 
tion had to fight. It is from Oxford, Cambridge, 
and the universities of Germany and France that 
American colleges and universities have imbibed 
these same pagan ideas. 

The classics form the backbone of pagan- 
ism, as the Bible forms the basis of 
the classics -^ 

Christian education. The classics are 

enduring, because they are the highest product of 
the human mind. The recent move in educational 
circles, and on the part of some of our leading 
colleges against the study of the *' humanities " 
(the Greek and Latin classics), and in favor of the 
study of '' moderns" (that is, science, modern lan- 
guages, and history), can never reach a point of 
stability until the Bible is put in its proper position 
as an educational factor, for to push out the clas- 
sics without putting in their place that which is 
equally as strong, if not stronger^ is useless. A 



112 THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

reaction is inevitable, and the classics will be 
returned to their old-time place of honor. Chris- 
tian education in its simplicity is the only alter- 
native. 

This does not mean the substitution of a class in 
Bible or sacred history for the former classics. As 
the classic literature has been the basis of all 
instruction in our schools since the Middle Ages, a 
reformation necessitates a decided breaking down 
of the old system, and the adoption of a new sys- 
tem built upon an entirely different foundation, — a 
system in which the Word of God shall be the 
basis of all education, and the text-book in every 
line of study. 

Parents, reading this, may say that but 
Paganism ^ small proportion of the people ever 

. ., , obtain a classical education. But if you 

children -^ 

send your child only to the modern kin- 
dergarten, he is there told the story of Pluto; or of 
Ceres, goddess of the golden grain; Mercury, the 
winged messenger god;' the wood nymphs; ^Eolus, 
who rules the winds and brings the storms; or 
Apollo, who is driven across the heavens in a char- 
iot of fire. Or, if the real Greek names are 
dropped, nature is personified in such a way as to 



SPIRIT OF THE CLASSICS TAUGHT 113 

give the childish mind a distorted idea of things 
which leads to anything but the pure and simple 
truth of God's Word. He thus drinks in the myths 
and fables of the Greeks from very infancy. One 
of his First Readers has the story of Proserpina, 
who was stolen, and hidden under the earth for a 
season. Nature-studies are often made attractive 
to youthful minds by being associated with the 
ancient Greek gods and goddesses. But even in 
a more subtle way the ideas of classic lore are 
taught in the evolutionary theories of science and 
philosophy, through primary, grammar, and high- 
school grades. 

„ . "Philosophy," as before quoted, is de- 

Evolution ^ ^' 

fined to be " the account which the 
human mind gives to itself of the constitution of 
the world. " That philosophy is now termed evo- 
lution, for evolution is man's way of accounting for 
the constitution of the world, and the creatures 
which inhabit it. Take notice of these words from 
the pen of Henry Drummond. In a paper pre- 
pared for the ParHament of Religions, entitled 
"Evolution of Christianity," he says: "Working 
in its own field, science made the discovery of how 
God made the world.'' "Through faith we 

8 



114 THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

understand that the worlds were framed by the 
word of God," writes Paul to the Hebrews/* 

Mr. Drummond continues: *<To science itself 
this discovery was startling and as unexpected as 
it has ever been to theology. Exactly fifty years 
ago Mr. Darwin wrote in dismay to Mr. Hooker 
that the old theory of specific creation — that God 
made all species apart, and introduced them into 
the world one by one — was melting away before 
his eyes. He unburdened the thought, as he says 
in his letter, almost as if he were confessing a mur- 
der. But so entirely has the world bowed to 
the zv eight of facts before which even Darwin 
trembled, that one of the last books on Darwin- 
ism by so religious a mind as that of Mr. Alfred 
Russell Wallace, contains in its opening chapter 
these words: * The whole scientific and Hterary 
world, even the whole educated public^ accepts as a 
matter of common knowledge the origin of the 
species from the other allied species, by the ordi- 
nary process of natural birth. The idea of special 
creation, or any other exceptional mode of pro- 
ductiony is absolutely extinct. ' ' ' 

It would be well if each could read the words 
of Drummond for himself; but in brief he says: 

i*Heb. II : 3. 



DARWINISM IN EDUCATION 1 15 

**It is needless at this time of day to point out 
the surpassing grandeur of the new conception 
[evolution]. How it has filled the Christian im- 
agination and kindled to enthusiasm the soberest 
scientific minds from Darwin downward is known 
to everyone. For that splendid hypothesis we 
can not be too grateful to science ; and that 
theology can only enrich itself which gives it 
even temporary place in its doctrine of creation." 
How strange that God failed to make known 
this stupendous truth ( ? ) through his Word, and 
left it for science in the hands of Plato's de- 
scendants to figure out! ''What it needed," 
says Drummond, ''was a credible presentation, 
in view especially of astronomy, geology, pale- 
ontology, and biology. These, as we have said, 
had made the former theory simply untenable. 
And science has supplied theology with a theory 
which the intellect can accept.'' Faith has been 
laid aside. The human intellect has been exalted. 
Paganism has cast out Christianity, and our boys 
and girls now study the nebular hypothesis, ex- 
planatory of the creation of the worlds, in their 
astronomy and geography; they dwell upon the 
eons of ages consumed in the formation of the 



ii6 THE PAGAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 

geologic strata of the earth; they study the fos- 
sils of the ages past, and from them describe 
the evolution of man from a polyp. 
Schools ^^ what use is the preaching of the 
have great- gospel on one day of the week, while 
estinflu- six days out of seven paganism guides 
®°*^® the intellect ? Why sit dreaming of 

heaven, or spend money to proselyte, while 
pagan education leads your own children by the 
hand, and weaves about their mind a network of 
theories which blinds their eyes to spiritual truths ? 
There is weight in the words of President Harper, 
of Chicago University, who says: **It is difficult 
to prophesy what the result of our present method 
of educating the youth will be in fifty years. We 
are training the mind in our public schools, but 
the moral side of the child's nature is almost 
entirely neglected. The Roman Catholic Church 
insists on remedying this manifest evil, but our 
Protestant churches seem to ignore it completely. 
They expect the Sunday-school to make good 
what our public schools leave undone, and the 
consequence is that we overlook a danger as real 
and as great as any we have had to face." 



VIII 

CHRIST THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

I. The Christ Life 

To Israel as a nation had been intrusted the 
sacred gift of teaching; but the power had de- 
parted from this people because they had mingled 
their educational ideas with the heathen, and had 
so far forgotten the commands of Jehovah that 
they were sending their children to heathen teach- 
ers, inviting into their midst the prophets of Baal/ 
That nation whose prophets had more than once 
warned the kings of the earth of impending danger, 
heard no longer the voice of God. For nearly four 
hundred years no prophet had arisen in Israel. 
"Prophecy had become so completely extinct — 
the Spirit had so utterly departed from Israel — 
that it was apparently assumed by many that a 
new prophet was an impossibility. " Had the God 
who brought their fathers out of Egypt, who had 
driven out the nations before their face, — the God 

1 2 Kings 17: 15-17; Jer. 19:4, 5. 

"7 



Ii8 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, — had He forsaken 

His people ? Often the question was asked, as the 

family circle formed around the table. Almost 

with bated breath mothers awaited the birth of a 

child, hoping it might be the chosen of God, but 

still no prophet came. 

The priests in Israel went on in their 

, . formal round of duties; yearly the nation 
to birth '' ^ 

of Christ assembled at Jerusalem for the annual 
feasts. Thousands of victims were slain, 
and the blood ran freely from the altar; but there 
was no answering fire, no glow of the Shekinah. 
Jewish children sat day after day at the feet 
of masters in Israel, listening to the repetition of 
tradition and the words of the Talmud; but the 
life had departed from the instruction, and there 
was no response in the souls of men. Heaven 
waited anxiously for the opening of some soul to 
the inflow of God's Spirit, but the avenues through 
which it should have come were closed. Teachers 
who should have been ' * under the full control of 
the Spirit," knew not what it was to hear the 
voice of God; and children, fed only with physical 
and mental food, grew to manhood with shriveled 
spiritual natures, to become in turn the teachers of 



ISRAEL'S EDUCATIONAL PLANE LOW 119 

the next generation. As Israel's governmental pros- 
perity was due to her educational system, as her 
land produced abundantly when the children were 
properly taught, and as the nations round them 
bowed in respect to the chosen of God so long 
as they adhered to the system of education once 
offered, it is no wonder that the year 5 b. c, fol- 
lowing centuries of departure from these truths, 
found Palestine in the iron grasp of Rome, and its 
people scarce able to pay the necessary tribute. 
Heaven's eye saw this and more. 

Among the priests who ministered in the 
„ temple was one who looked for a deliv- 

erer, and to him the angel Gabriel came 
with the words: **Thy prayer is heard; and thy 
wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou 
shalt call his name John." Although this man had 
touched the chord on which angels sang, and was 
enabled to feel the pulse-beat of the Eternal, the 
angel's words startled him, and he beUeved them 
not. And that the sounds of earth might for a 
time be shut out, and Zacharias be enabled to 
listen only to the voice of God, the angel laid his 
hand upon him, and he remained speechless until 
the day of the fulfillment of Gabriel's words. 



I20 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

Theedu- ^ prophet was born who was to turn 
cation of the hearts of Israel to their God. Ks 
the fore- came in the spirit and power of Elias, 
runner preaching repentance. His life was one 
of loneliness and poverty. His time was spent 
away from the cities and multitudes; for Jeru- 
salem, the appointed leader of nations, no longer 
offered an education fitted for her own prophets. 
And so God trained John. Of those born of 
women there is none greater than John the 
Baptist. 

Once more heaven and earth were linked. 

How small the chain ! Only, as it were, 
Nazareth '' 

the size of a thread, and the connecting 
link was the heart of a woman ! But in the town 
of Nazareth, the lowly and the despised, lived a 
young woman, betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter of 
Galilee. Looking into the future, little more than 
dreaming of life and its hopes, she lifted her eyes, 
and beheld an angel. The soul longing to be in 
tune with God, brings angelic hosts to earth. If 
that yearning be but a mother's longing, heaven 
bows a listening ear; the throb is felt throughout 
creation. So close is God to man ! The words, 
'*Hail, highly favored, the Lord is with thee," 



CHRIST'S EARLY EDUCATION I2i 

startled Mary, for she had not expected such a 
quick response. ' She was troubled, but the angel 
said, "Fear not, Mary." ''The power of the 
Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that 
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be 
called the Son of God." ''The fullness of time 
had come. " God, having waited years for Israel 
to return to Him, now accompHshed the master 
stroke of the Godhead. Creation wondered. 

The Spirit overshadowed Mary; it thrilled her 
nerves, and touched to life the germ of a new 
being. To humanity was given the power to form 
a body for the indwelling of the God of heaven. 
" A body hast Thou prepared Me. " The treasure 
was in an earthen vessel, that the more glory 
might abound to God. " Christ set up His taber- 
nacle in the midst of our human encampment. 
He pitched His tent by the side of the tents of 
men, that He might dwell among us, and make us 
familiar with His divine character and life." ^ 

The early years of the Christ child found 

. ° Him sitting: at His mother s kjiee. From 
ucation of ^ 

Christ h^r lips ^^^^ from the scrolls of the 

prophets, He learned of heavenly things! 

Nature was His unwearied teacher; from her He 

''See John i : 14, R. V., mar. 



122 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

gathered stores of scientific knowledge. He stud- 
ied the life of plants and animals, and the life 
of man." "The parables by which, during His 
ministry, He loved to teach His lessons of truth, 
show how open His spirit was to the influences of 
nature, and how He had gathered the spiritual 
teaching from the surroundings of His daily life." 
"As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, " so 
panted His soul for spiritual intercourse with the 
Father; and that longing which led Him to listen 
attentively for the voice of God in nature, devel- 
oped the highest powers of His mind. 
The splr- His was not a sudden growth, but grad- 
itual first ual, as with other children; and while 
in Christ's developing a strong physical body, \ ' the 
child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, 
filled with wisdom." The secret J of the difference 
between Jesus and His companions is revealed in 
this verse. Most children develop mentally and 
physically, especially during their first twelve years ; 
but the spiritual nature of Christ was the leading 
one and in His threefold nature the mental and 
physical were always well balanced by the spirit- 
ual. As Hinsdale says: "The divine mind, the 
human heart, and nature are closely united " in 



CHRIST'S LIFE WORK 123 

Him. He did not seek instruction in the rab- 
binical schools y for they had lost the spirit which 
to him was life. 

At an early age, probably not later than 
recoe- twelve, He recognized His life work, and 
nized his henceforth every energy was bent in one 
life work direction. His lot was to reveal the 
divinity of God, to show the possibilities of the 
God-man, to prove to the world that it is possible 
for God and man to unite and for the spiritual 
nature to rule; and proving this, to show that the 
heavenly instituted system of education was not a 
failure, although at that time it was in disrepute. 

The aere of twelve was a critical period 
Christ ^ ^ 

chose the ^^ ^^ ^^^^ °^ ^ Jevv'ish child, for it was 
spiritual then that the physical nature was ap- 
plane proaching maturity. The next few years 

meant much to the youth, for he then had it within 
his power to choose for life the plane upon which 
he expected to live. If physical strength and the 
gratification of the natural senses are the height 
of ambition, by yielding to temptations of this 
nature at about this age the life-habits are fixed 
Perhaps in other countries the development is 
somewhat slower, owing to climatic influences, 



124 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

but from twelve to sixteen every youth struggles 
against tendencies and ambitions which a few 
years later cease to be temptations. It was so 
with Christ; but as He stood watching the paschal 
services at the time of His first visit to the temple, 
^' day by day He saw ^their meaning more clearly. 
Every act seemed to be bound up with His own 
life. New impulses were awakening within Him." 
For years, that service, established to appeal to the 
spiritual nature, had degenerated into the mere 
slaying of beasts. For the first time a soul was 
touched, and heavenly impulses were awakened. 
It was then that the temptation to pass a life in 
physical ease was met and overcome. Heaven 
seemed to open to the child's eyes, and He heard 
the call of God to a life with Him. He sought 
to be alone, and in the silence His heart caught 
the vibrations of heavenly beings, and the grosser 
physical nature was abandoned forever. 

The resolve formed, a new light and 

power seemed to take possession of His 
the rabbis ^ . . ^ 

mind, and entering the school con- 
ducted in the temple. He listened eagerly to hear 
from the lips of the rabbis some spiritual lesson. 
* * The doctors turned upon Him with questions, 



CHRIST AND MANUAL TRAINING 125 

and they were amazed at His answers." He mani- 
fested such deep piety, and His questions opened 
to the minds of His Hsteners such depths of truth, 
that wonder filled their minds. A harp swept by 
heavenly zephyrs was before them, and the music 
fell on untrained ears. The first work of the 
heaven-sent teacher had begun. ^ ' Wist ye not 
that I must be about My Father's business } " He 
asked, as Joseph and Mary met Him at the temple 
gate. They saw Him with physical eyes, and 
thought Him all their own; but the eye of the child 
had pierced the cloud which hung between heaven 
and earth. 

Manual From Jerusalem He returned with His 
training parents, and aided them in their life of 
in Christ's toil. * ' He hid in His own heart the mys- 
tery of His mission, waiting submissively 
for the appointed time for Him to enter upon His 
work." Those eighteen years were years of toil 
and study. Each day drew Him nearer to the 
time when a voice from heaven should proclaim 
Him a divine teacher. He was not impatient, but 
as a carpenter did thorough work; as a son, He 
was obedient; and as a subject, He was law- 
abiding. 



126 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

^- He never lost sie^ht of the fact that He 

The age ° 

of strong- had a mission, and that it took a spir- 
estspir- itual life to fulfill that mission. He was 
tuality tempted in all points, and suffered in the 
temptation; but each resistance was a round added 
in the ladder He was building toward heaven. 
There was a law in Israel calling the priests to 
their sacred office at the age of thirty. This 
statute was based upon a law of human nature. 
The allotted time of man's life is divided into two 
portions. The first forty years is a time of 
growth, the last thirty a period of decline. Of 
the first half we have the age of physical develop- 
ment, then a time when the intellectual powers 
are in the ascendency, and from twenty-five to 
thirty or thirty-five is the time of special develop- 
ment in the spiritual nature. Every man has three 
chances in life; and the choice made, whether 
for worldly honor, for intellectual powers, or a life 
of faith, depends wholly upon the object constantly 
kept before the child by its educators. Had Christ 
been under the influence of the teachers of His 
day, the probability is that He would have chosen 
to live either on the physical or the intellectual 
plane, for this was the choice made by all the 



JESUS AS A TEACHER 127 

pupils of those schools, but His early training by 
Mary, who, as a mother, had yielded herself as the 
"handmaid of the Lord," and His close com- 
munion with God through the works of nature, 
guided Him into right channels, and at the auspi- 
cious moment He voluntarily offered Himself to 
His Father to fulfill the mission which it lay in His 
power to reject. Of His later struggles the rec- 
ord is silent. There came a period, however, 
when He might have posed as an intellectual 
leader, but His earlier decision led Him to pass 
this temptation unsullied. To prove this true, we 
need only to study the nature of the temptations 
presented in the wilderness. That He remained 
true to His mission is due to early training. This 
will not be controverted, for it is a divine law seen 
everywhere in nature.^ 

n. The Ministry of the God-man. 

One of the gifts of the Spirit is that of 

teaching, and Christ was a born teacher. 
a teacher 

Acquired ability amounts to but little 
where the spirit of teaching is wanting. Christ 
was a teacher both by virtue of His nationality, 
since all Jews were called to be teachers, and 

^Prov. 22:6. 



128 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

also by direct appointment; for He had to accom- 
plish in His own life what the nation had refused 
to accomplish. He carried with Him no creden- 
tials, no statement of scholarship signed by the 
doctors of Israel, for none of these schools had 
known Him as a pupil; yet Nicodemus, a master 
teacher in Jerusalem, after listening to His words, 
sought Him in the quiet evening hours, and ad- 
dressed Him as Rabbi ^ — Teacher. In the course 
of the conversation this learned man said, ' ' We 
know that thou art a divine teacher, for no man 
can do as Thou except God be with him." It was 
as a teacher, and more, as a divine teacher, that 
He was known from the very beginning of His 
ministry. His ministry was a ministry of teach- 
ing. He was known as a teacher, not so much 
by the words He spoke as by the life He livedo 
and the works He did. 

The words of Bushnell are true: ''We 
teacher ^^^ ^^^ ^°^ ourselves in the simple 
success directions and freedom of His teach- 
depended ings, that whatever He advances is 

upon the f^Qj^ Himself." He was giving Him- 
life 

self, and that He had a self, a divine 

self, to give is due to the education of the 



JESUS AND SHAKESPEARE 129 

child and youth. God's image was perfect in 
Him, and when the time of ministry came, there 
shone from Him what previous years had been 
developing in Him. This is the object of 
Christian education. The same author further 
says: ''He is the high-priest ... of the divine 
nature, speaking as one that has come out from 
God, and has nothing to borrow from the world. 
It is not to be detected . . . that the human 
sphere in which He moved imparted anythi?ig 
to Him. His teachings are just as full of 
divine nature., as Shakespeare's of human." 
What a commentary on the two systems of edu- 
cation, the one choosing inspiration as a basis; 
the other, the product of the human brain! 
He taught ^^^^^^^1 continues: "In His teaching 
as one He does not speculate about God, as 
having a school professor, drawing out con- 
au or y (.j^gJQj^g y^y ^ practice on words, and 
deeming that the way of proof; He does not 
build up a frame of evidence from below, by 
some constructive process, such as the philoso- 
phers delight in; but He simply speaks of God 
and spiritual things as one who has come out 
from Him, to tell us what He knows. And His 
9 



I30 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

simple telling brings us the reality; proves it to 
us in its own sublime self-evidence; awakens 
even the consciousness of it in our own bosom; 
so that formal arguments or dialectic proofs 
offend us by their coldness^ and seem, in fact, 
to be only opaque substances set between us 
and the light. Indeed, He makes even the 
world luminous by His words — fills it with an 
immediate and new sense of God, which noth- 
ing has ever been able to expel. The incense 
of the upper world is brought out in His gar- 
ments, and flows abroad, as perfume, on the 
poisoned air." And no wonder, for from a child 
He had breathed the atmosphere of heaven. 
Every child should have the same privilege. 

When the two teachers, Christ and 

Princ p es ]s^icodemus, the representatives of two 
of Christ's r , . 1 .. . 

education ^Y^^^^s ^* education, the divme and 

the worldly, met, Christ outlined to 
his questioner the principles upon which His 
system was based : * — 

1. Its primary object is to prepare its pupils for 
the kingdom of God, a spiritual kingdom. 

2. The first step is a spiritual birth; for ''God 
is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must 

*John 3- 



CHRIST'S EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES 131 

worship in spirit. " ' * That which is born of the 
flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the 
Spirit is spirit." 

3. This the natural man can not understand, for 
it is spiritually discerned. As well might I try to 
explain it to you, Nicodemus, as to explain the 
blowing of the winds ; you can see the results, but 
the truth can not be grasped by the senses. Do 
you pose as a teacher in Israel, and know not 
these things ^ ' * If I have told you earthly things, 
and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell 
you of heavenly things.'^ " I have but begun to tell 
you of the plan of the Father. There are yet 
many things, ^*but ye can not bear them now." 

4. The things I teach are as light in the dark- 
ness. ' ' Every one that doeth evil hateth the 
light, . . . but he that doeth truth cometh to the 
light. " It is thus that I distinguish true scholars 
from the false. When truth is offered, some 
believe, and whosoever believes in the Son of man 
shall have eternal life. 

Nicodemus said : '' How ca7i these things be .^ " 
He longed for proof, for demonstration. ' ' Proof 
is indeed the method of science, including theology; 
it has, no doubt, a function in religious teaching; 



132 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

but it is not the method of the highest form of 
religious teaching. The fundamental truths of 
religion are directly revealed to the human con- 
sciousness, and are not argued out or logically es- 
tablished. . . . The greatest religious truths lie 
deeper than formal reasoning. This is the reason 
why the greatest religious teachers have worked 
below the proposition-and-proof level ; as said 
before, they have something of the prophetic gift. 
It may be added that no preacher [or teacher] who 
works mainly on this line will attract the most 
religious minds; he will not attract even those who 
have the piety of the intellect, to say nothing of 
the piety of the affections and the will. He may 
develop logical acumen, critical ability, and con- 
troversial power, but he will prove unequal to the 
generation of spirituality. . . . Such a minister 
will be sure to lead his flock into the error that is 
now far too common, — of assigning a dispropor- 
tionate place in religious faith and life to the under- 
standing, to the partial exclusion of the heart." ^ 

His actual work as a teacher is seen in 
His pupils 

His dealings, first, with the apostles. 

His immediate followers, who were in training that 

^ " Jesus as a Teacher," pages 48, 49. 



CHRIST'S TRAINING SCHOOL 133 

they in turn might become teachers; second, with 
the multitudes who thronged His way; third, with 
the children who were brought to Him by mothers, 
and who were taught by Him, that mothers and 
apostles might the better know how to deal with 
youthful minds. Primarily, His was a training- 
school for workers, and His pupils represented 
every phase of human disposition. He chose 
humble fishermen, because their minds were un- 
prejudiced, and they had less to unlearn before ac- 
cepting the truth. '* He knew what was in man." 
That is. He had insight into the minds and hearts, 
and knew just what was needed to awaken the 
soul -life of each student. This is a necessary gift 
in the successful teacher. How much that is 
now taught would be dispensed with if teachers 
could read the soul conditions of pupils, and then 
feed them with only such food as would nourish. 
This, tooy is Christian education. Before the 
teacher can have such an experience, however, he 
must have soul culture, and be in such close touch 
with the fountain of truth that he can draw what- 
ever is needed. The well is deep, and faith alone 
can bring the water of life to the surface.^ 

^John 4. 



134 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

With His chosen apostles, Christ ' ' with- 
His school- , _ , _ . ^ r . 

drew t'f'oin tke confusion of the city 
room the -^ j j j 

country. ^^ ^^^^ quiet of the fields and hills as 
more in harmony with the lessons of 
self-abnegation he desired to teach them. . . . 
Here, surrounded by the works of his own crea- 
tion, he could turn the thoughts of his hearers 
from the artificial to the 7tatural.'' Those 
schools to-day which are located in some quiet 
country place afford the best opportunities for 
education. 

The books used seem to be two, and 
only two: the writings of the prophets 
and the great book of nature. Hins- 
dale says: ** Scripture furnishes the basis of His 
teaching. ... It is impossible to say how many 
distinct recognitions of Scripture are found in His 
teachings, but the number and range are both 
large. . . . One of the most interesting of these 
[methods] is his constant habit of expanding 
Scripture, or, as we might say, of reading into 
it new meanings. He thus treats not merely 
prophetic passages, but also dogmatic passages; 
moreover. His meanings are sometimes new, not 
merely to the Jewish teachers, but also to the 



HIS TEACHING PRACTICAL 135 

authors of the passages themselves."^ This was 
because the teacher was led by the Spirit of 
truth, which guides into all truth. 
Hissvstein ^^ must be remembered that this in- 
empha- struction was given to men of mature 
sized the minds, and tended to fit them to be- 
prac ca come teachers of all men in whatever 
station. Probably none of the apostles were 
under thirty. They were men who had become 
settled in a life work. John, the youngest, was 
most susceptible to spiritual teaching, and at 
length developed this nature so fully that. his 
spirit left his body in vision. ^ Painter expresses 
well the method of instruction followed by Christ. 
He says: '*He observes the order of nature, and 
seeks only a gradual development, — ' first the 
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in 
the ear.' With His disciples, He insists chiefly 
upon the practical and fundamental truths of 
religion, buildings as it were, a substantial frame- 
work in the beginning, which the Holy Spirit 
was to conduct afterward to a harmonious and 
beautiful completion."^ 

'"Jesus as a Teacher," page 72. ^Rev. I : 10. 
®" History of Education," page 84. 



136 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

It was thus that all the truths we 
VisIbSe re- 
sults of ^^^^ doctrines were taught. The les- 

HJs teach° son on the resurrection was at the 
'"^ tomb of Lazarus; the one on Sabbath 

observance was in the synagogue, healing the 
withered hand, or bidding the dumb to speak. 
''One finds in His program," says a French 
writer, ' ' neither Hterary studies nor course of 
theology. And yet, strange as it may seem, when 
the moment of action arrives, the disciples — those 
unlettered fishermen — have become orators that 
move the multitudes and confound the doctors; 
profound thinkers that have sounded the Scrip- 
tures and the human heart; writers that give to 
the world immortal books in a language not their 
mother tongue." If the worth of a system of edu- 
cation is to be judged by results, the world 
must hold its peace when looking upon the work 
of Christ. Astonishment will again take hold of 
men when Christians return to His methods. Of 
His reference to nature we have no need to 
write, for His parables are the wonder of the 
ages, and take a unique position in the literature 
of all times. Christ was not, as many other 
teachers, a writer of books. His writing was 



HIS INSTRUCTION ADAPTED TO ALL 137 

on the hearts of men. He spoke, and the 
vibratory waves set in motion have continued 
until to-day, and still beat upon our hearts. The 
soul of the spiritually minded hears, and men 
to-day become pupils of the Man of Nazareth 
as verily as did Peter, James, and John. 
Indications^ student was ready to go forth from 
of a com- Christ's teachings to open the truth to 
pleted others only when he could say, ' ' Lo, 

course ^^^ speakest Thou plainly. . . . Now 
we are sure that Thou knowest all things, and 
needest not that any man should ask Thee. By 
this we believe that Thou camest forth from 
God."'^ With the multitudes He did a work 
similar to that with the disciples; but because 
they were coming and going, He could not do 
the same thorough work. His teaching, how- 
ever, was always practical, and the farmer went 
to his field a better man, seeing God in the 
growing grain; the fisherman returned to his nets 
with the thought ringing in his mind that he 
should be a fisher of men; the mother returned 
to her home recognizing her children as younger 
members of God's family, and with a strong desire 
to teach as He taught. The tendency always in 

10 John 16 : 29, 30. 



138 THE EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS 

all His teaching was to arouse thought, to awaken 
soul-longings, and cause hearts to beat with a new 
life fed from above. Standing between heaven 
and earth of the musical scale, His life vibrated 
in unison with those higher notes of the universes 
circling round His Father's throne, and with His 
human arm He encircled the world, imparting to 
beings here the same life, striving always to bring 
them into tune with the Infinite. '*I, if I be 
lifted up," He said, **will draw all men unto 
Me." 



IX 

EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH 

' ' I PRAY not that Thou shouldest take 
The church ^j^^^ out of the world, but that Thou 
to teach 
all nations shouldest keep them from the evil. 

They are not of the world, even as I 
am not of the world. Sanctify [teach] them 
through Thy truth." ^ As He lifted His eyes to 
heaven in those moments of quiet, just before 
entering Gethsemane, these words fell from the 
lips of the Son of man. Looking upon the little 
company of men clustering around Him, He saw 
in them the nucleus of the church which was to 
be called by His name, and His heart yearned for 
that body of Christians. Many and fierce would 
be their struggles; for He had breathed into the 
hearts of men a system of instruction which, be- 
cause it was truth, would awaken all the bitterness 
of the enemy of truth; and the new system must be 
able to resist all the darts which human minds, 
swayed by the prince of evil, could hurl. Divine 

ijohn 17 : 15-17. 

139 



I40 EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH 

philosophy must meet and vanquish human phi- 
losophy. That was now the controversy, and it 
was left to a few weak men to start the work. 
What power was in that Spirit of truth with which 
they were baptized ! His commission to this same 
company, as they watched Him recede from earth 
on the day of His ascension, was, ' ^ Go ye there- 
fore, and teach all nations." They, the true 
Israel, were now to become teachers of nations. 
Recognizing the difficulties to be met, He had, 
on another occasion, said: ''I send you forth as 
sheep among wolves: be ye therefore wise as ser- 
pents, and simple as doves." In no boasted phi- 
losophy, no high-sounding words, but in simplicity 
of truthy was to lie their strength. Of the 
works of the apostles and those who beHeved on 
Christ through their teaching, we have this divine 
testimony, ' ' I know thy works, and thy labor, and 
thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them 
which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say 
they are apostles, and are not, and hast found 
them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and 
for my name's sake hast labored and hast not 
fainted."^ It is therefore evident that a great 

2 Rev. 2 :2, 3, 



A SECOND EXODUS 141 

work was done, and that very speedily; for again 

Inspiration describes it: ''Behold a white horse: 

and he that sat on him had a bow; . . . and he 

went forth conquering, and to conquer."^ Men, 

though admonished to be as harmless as doves, 

were nevertheless, when teachers of truth, enabled 

to make themselves felt in the world. 

To accept Christianity in those early 

days meant the withdrawal from every- 
popular -^ ■^ 

education thing before cherished; it meant not only 
the separation from heathenism in wor- 
ship, or Babylon, but also from heathenism in 
thought and education, or Egypt. It was a second 
exodus. Justin Martyr, a Christian born near the 
close of the first century, is quoted by Painter, as 
he describes the life of a follower of Christ: *'We 
who once delighted in lewdness now embrace chas- 
tity; we who once embraced magical arts, have 
consecrated ourselves to the good and unbegotten 
God; we who loved above all things the gain of 
money and possessions, now bring all that we have 
into one common stock, and give a portion to 
everyone that needs; we who once hated and 
killed one another, now pray for our enemies." 

3 Rev. 6 : 2. 



142 EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH 

With this spirit in the church we are not sur- 
prised to find that in the words of Coleman, < ' The 
tender solicitude of these early Christians for the 
religious instruction of their children is one of 
their most beautiful characteristics. They taught 
them, even at the earHest dawn of inteUigence, 
the sacred names of God and the Saviour. They 
sought to lead the infant minds of their children 
up to God, by famihar narratives from Scripture, 
of Joseph, of young Samuel, of Josiah, and of the 
holy child Jesus. The history of the patriarchs 
and prophets, apostles, and men whose lives are 
narrated in the sacred volume, were the nursery 
tales with which they sought to form the tender 
minds of their children. As the mind of the child 
expanded, the parents made it their sacred duty 
and delightful task daily to exercise him in the 
recital of select passages of scripture relating to the 
doctrines and duties of religion. The Bible was 
the entertainment of the fireside. It was the firsts 
the last^ the only schoolbook almost^ of the child; 
and sacred psalmody, the only song with which 
his infant cry was hushed as he was lulled to rest 
on his mother's arm. The sacred song and the 
rude melody of its music were, from the earliest 



MISSIONARIES DEVELOPED 143 

periods of Christian antiquity, an important means 

of impressing the infant heart with sentiments of 

piety, and of imbuing the susceptible minds of the 

young with the knowledge and the faith of the 

Scriptures." 

Painter writes: *'The purpose of these 
True ^ ^ 

education ^^^ty Christian parents, as of the ancient 

developed Jews, was to train up their children in 
mission- the fear of God. In order that the chil- 
dren might be exposed as little as 
possible to the corrupting influence of heathen 
associations, their education was conducted within 
the healthful precincts of home. AS A RESULT, 
they grew up without a taste for debasing pleas- 
ures; they acquired simple domestic tastes; and 
when the time came, they took their place as 
consistent and earnest workers in the church."* 
These words make several facts very prominent: — 

/. Christian education should begin in the 
home. 

2. Bible stories should be the basis for nursery 
tales and infant songs. 

J. Christians should carry out the plan of edu- 
cation which the Jews failed to obey^ and which 
Christ revealed in a new light. 

* ♦' History of Education," page 90. 



144 EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH 

4-. The results of such Christian education in 
the home school will be elevated characters and 
workers in the cause of God, 

Would that it could be said of Christian mothers 
to-day, as a heathen orator once exclaimed con- 
cerning those early followers of Christ, * * What 
wives these Christians have!" 

One of the early Fathers thus expresses 

^ the dangler of children and youth in the 
of parents ^ ^ 

schools of the world, and shows the 
character of the education needed: *' Mothers 
ought to care for the bodies of their children, but 
it is necessary also that they inspire their offspring 
with love for the good and with fear toward God. 
And fathers will not limit themselves to giving 
their children an earthly vocation, but will interest 
themselves also in their heavenly calling. 

* * The most beautiful heritage that can be given 
children is to teach them to govern their passions. 
. . . Let us have for our children the same fear 
that we have for our houses, when servants go 
with a light into places where there is inflammable 
material, as hay or straw. They should not be 
permitted to go where the fire of impurity may be 
kindled in their hearts, and do them an irreparable 



VALUE OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 145 
injury. A knowledge of the Scriptures is an 

ANTIDOTE AGAINST THE UNREASONABLE INCLINA- 
TIONS OF YOUTH AND AGAINST THE READING OF 

PAGAN AUTHORS, in which heroes, the slaves of 
every passion, are lauded. The lessons of the 
Bible are springs that water the soul. As our 
children are everywhere surrounded by bad exam- 
ples, the monastic schools [what would correspond 
to-day with church schools] are the best for their 
education. Bad habits once contracted^ they can 
not be got rid of. This is the reason God con- 
ducted Israel into the wilderness, . . . that the 
vices of the Egyptians might be unlearned. . . . 
Now our children are surrounded by vice in our 
cities and are unable there to resist bad examples. 
. . . Let lis take care of the souls of our children^ 
that they may be formed for virtue, and not be 
degraded by vice." 

This writer might well address a modern audi- 
ence, for he recognizes the influence of pagan 
authors, and states that the Bible alone can coun- 
teract this influence; he recognizes the worldly 
schools as Egypt, and says that Christians should 
take their children out; and finally he recognizes 
the value of having schools located in the country, 
10 



146 EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH 

and advises people to move out of the cities with 

their children. 

Mosheim says: <* There can be no doubt 
Church 
schools ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ children of Christians were 

among carefully trained up from their infancy, 
early and were early put to reading the sacred 

r s ans ^^Q^j^g ^^^^ learning the principles of re- 
ligion. For this purpose schools were erected 
everywhere from the beginning." ^ 

„ From these schools for children, we 

Training 

schools for "^ust distinguish those seminaries of the 
missiono early Christians, erected extensively in 
aries the larger cities, at which adults, and 

especially such as aspired to be public teachers, 
were instructed and educated in all branches of 
learning, both human and divine. Such semina- 
ries, in which young men devoted to the sacred 
oiBce were taught whatever was necessary to qual- 
ify them properly for it, the apostles of Christ 
undoubtedly both set up themselves, and directed 
others to set up.^ St. John, at Ephesus, and Poly- 
carp, at Smyrna, established such schools. Among 
these seminaries, in subsequent times, none was 

^Church History, cent. I, part 2, chap. 3, sec. 7. 
^2 Tim. 2 : 2. 



PAGANS FEARED CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS 147 

more celebrated than that at Alexandria; which 
is commonly called a catechetic school. "'^ In 
addition, then, to home and church schools for 
children, the early Christian church established 
seminaries for the education of workers. In read- 
ing the history of the times the course of instruc- 
tion is seen to adhere closely to the Scriptures, 
and to draw a sharp distinction between the science 
of salvation and the Greek and Oriental philosophy 
as taught in the pagan schools. 
p Christian education was often regarded 

feared as narrow and Hmited by those who 

Christian loved to study the mysteries of Greek 
^^ ^^ ^ wisdom ; but as long as they adhered to 
their simple studies, and m.ade faith the basis of 
their work, there was a power in the truths taught 
by the students of these schools, which made the 
pagan world, with all its great men, tremble. It 
is an interesting fact that as late as the fourth 
century, after the Christian schools had lost much 
of their power through the mingling of pagan with 
Christian methods, and the adoption of some of 
the pagan studies, they were still regarded as the 
stronghold of Christianity. When Julian, the 

■^ Idem. 



148 EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH 

apostate, began to reign, an attempt was made to 

revive paganism throughout the Roman Empire. 

One of his first acts was to close the schools of the 

Christians. ** He contemptuously observes," says 

Gibbon, * * that the men who exalt the merit of 

implicit faith are unfit to claim or to enjoy the 

advantages of science ; and he vainly contends that 

if they refuse to adore the gods of Homer and 

Demosthenes, they ought to content themselves 

with expounding Luke and Matthew in the church 

of the Galileans. 

'*In all the cities of the Roman world, 

, . , the education of the youth was intrusted 
schools of -^ 

Julian to masters of grammar and rhetoric; who 

were elected by the magistrates, main- 
tained at the public expensCy and distinguished 
by many lucrative and honorable privileges. . . . 
As soon as the resignation of the more obstinate 
teachers had established the unrivaled dominion of 
the pagan sophists, Julian invited the rising gen- 
eration to resort with freedom to the public 
schools, in a just confidence that their tender 
minds would receive the impressions of literature 
and idolatry. If the greatest part of the 
Christian youth should be deterred by their 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF PAGANS 149 

OWN SCRUPLES, OR BY THOSE OF THEIR PARENTS, 
FROM ACCEPTING THIS DANGEROUS MODE OF IN- 
STRUCTION, THEY MUST, AT THE SAME TIME, RELIN- 
QUISH THE BENEFITS OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION. 

Julian had reason to expect that, in the space 
of a few years, the church would relapse into its 
primeval simplicity, and that the theologians, who 
possessed an adequate share of the learning and 
eloquence of the age, would be succeeded by a 
generation of blind and ignorant fanatics, incapable 
of defending the truth of their own principles, 
or of exposing the various follies of polytheism."* 
Julian can not be counted as a fool; for, wishing 
to make the world pagan, he proceeded to do so, 
(i) By closing the Christian schools where the 
"■merit of implicit faith'' was taught; (2) By 
compelling attendance of the public schools, taught 
by pagan teachers, and where literature and 

IDOLATRY were COMBINED. 

As Gibbon says, he had just reason to expect 
that in the course of a generation the Christians 
thus educated would lose their faith, cease to 
oppose paganism, and sink into insignificance. If 
a pagan emperor expected this in the fourth cen- 
tury, is it any wonder that Protestants to-day, 

8 ■' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chap. 23, par. 21. 



ISO EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH 

allowing their children to remain in the public 
schools where precisely the same things are taught, 
in principle as Julian had his public instructors 
teach, should lose power and cease to be Protes- 
tant sf From the words of Gibbon one would infer 
that in the days of Julian there were parents who 
refused to send their children to the public schools; 
some children who, ' ' because of their own scru- 
ples," refused to attend; and some teachers who 
ceased to teach rather than teach literature and 
idolatry in state schools. 

vSpecial mention is made of the Alex- 
andrian school, as it was located in an 
nary at 

Alexandria Egyptian city to which flocked many 
noted pagan scholars. Sad as it may 
be to do so, it is yet necessary to see how these 
schools, and especially this one at Alexandria, lost 
their simplicity as they came in contact with pa- 
gan scholars, and attempted to meet them on 
their own grounds. 

Alexandria ^^^^^^"^ ^^^^'' ''This philosophy [of 
adopts Plato] was adopted by such of the 
philosophy learned at Alexandria as wished to be 
^ accounted Christians, and yet to retain 

the name^ garb^ and the raiik of philosophers. 



RESULT OF WORLDLY METHODS 151 

In particular, all those who in this century presided 
in the schools of the Christians at Alexandria . . . 
are said to have approved of it. These men were 
persuaded that true philosophy, the great and most 
salutary gift of God, lay in scattered fragments 
among all the sects of philosophers; and therefore 
that it was the duty of every wise man, and espe- 
cially of a Christian teacher, to collect those frag- 
ments from all quarters, and to use them for 
the defense of religion and the confutation of 
impiety/'* 

Result of ^^^ lesson so dear to Paul — that the 
adopting gospel of Christ is the * ' power of God 
worldly unto salvation" — was lost sight of when 
""^ ^ ® these Christian teachers assumed the 
philosopher's garb, and used the philosopher's 
vocabulary to confute impiety. ''I have some- 
what against thee," writes the divine historian 
of this age, ' ' because thou hast left thy first 
love. Remember therefore from whence thou art 
fallen, and repent, and do the first works ; or 
else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove 
thy candlestick out of his place. "^'^ The heaven- 

^ '* Church History," cent. 2, part 2, chap, i, par. 6. 
10 Rev. 2:4,5. 



152 EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH 

lit taper of Christian education in its purity was 
beginning to grow dim. Its flame must have a 
constant supply of truth, or, like the candle with- 
out oxygen, it burns low, and finally goes out. 
Paul, writing to the Corinthians who were placed 
in circumstances similar to those of the school at 
Alexandria, that is, pressed upon all sides by 
pagan philosophy, said: ''I came toward you 
with weakness and fear and great timidity. And 
my thought and my statement was not clothed in 
captivating philosophical reasons; but in demon- 
strated spirit and power, so that your trust might 
not be in human philosophy ^ but in divine power. 
. . . What we speak is not in an artificial 
discussion of a human philosophy, but by spir- 
itual teachings, comparing spiritualities with the 
spiritual."" 

Again, ''Dialectic," or logic, was that 

science of which Aristotle, the disciple 
versus the 
Scriptures ^^ Plato, boasted as being the father. 

Says a writer of the church after the 
decline was well begun, it "is the queen of arts 
and sciences. In it reason dwells, and is mani- 
fested and developed. It is dialectic alone that 

11 I Cor. 2 : 3-5, 13, Fenton's translation. 



TRUE EDUCATION CAUSED DIVISION i53 
can give knowledge and wisdom; it alone shows 

WHAT AND WHENCE WE ARE, AND TEACHES US 

OUR DESTINY [human philosophy and evolution]; 

through it we learn to know good and evil. And 

how necessary is it to a clergyman, in order 

that he may be able to meet and vanquish 

heretics ! " Men have more than once reverted 

to logic to vanquish heretics, but it was only 

when the Spirit of truth was lacking. 

Error was rapidly creeping into the 
Theedu= , , . . . 11 , 

.. J church, and it came prmcipally through 

question these schools, as has already been seen. 

caused a However, truth was not abandoned for 

divis on error without a struggle. Mosheim says: 

''The estimation in which human learning should 

be held was a question on which the Christians , 

were about equally divided. For while many 

thought that the literature and writings of the 

Greeks ought to receive attention, there were others 

who contended that true piety and religion were 

endangered by such studies.'' ^'^ People then, as 

now, looked to the leaders in the church for 

guidance; and it was hard, when these studies 

were popular, for the conscientious to withdraw 

12 "Church History," cent. 3, part i, chap, i, par. 5. 



154 EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHURCH 

entirely to what the others called a narrow, limited 
education. It often led to contention among 
members of the same church, and often even par- 
ents and children failed to agree on the subject. 
''But gradually," continues Mosheim, 

^ ' * the friends of philosophy and liter a- 
methods 
retained ^^^^^ acquired the ascendency. To this 

issue Origen contributed very much; 
for having early imbibed the principles of the 
NEW Platonism, he inauspicionsly applied them 
to theology, and earnestly recommended them to 
the numerous youth who attended on his instruc- 
tion. And the greater the influence of this man, 
which quickly spread over the whole Christian 
world, the more readily was his method of 
explaining the sacred doctrines propagated." 

The days when the papacy should be 

^rig n recognized as the beast of Revelation 

of the 

papacy ^3 were fast approachmg. Such ex- 
periences in the history of education 
in the Christian church show how rapidly the 
life of the Master, the Spirit of truth, was giv- 
ing place to the form of godliness which denied 
the power thereof. One reading thus the pages 
of history can not fail to see that the papacy 



ORIGIN OF THE PAPACY 155 

was formed in the minds of men, WAS propa- 
gated IN THE SCHOOLS, AND REALLY TOOK BIRTH 
IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM THEN DEVELOPED. 

The political power, which was called upon to 
help the church, simply carried out at the point 
of the sword those principles which were devel- 
oped in the schools. The two streams — pagan- 
ism and apostate Christianity — united; and in 
the mad current which flowed from their conflu- 
ence, men's souls were lost forever. 

Christian Education is the pure water of life, 
clear and sparkling, which flows from the throne 
of God; but when mingled with the turbid waters 
of the valley, it is lost sight of, and the current 
is evil. The part played by Platonic philoso- 
phy can not be overlooked. The foundation had 
already been laid in the third century for the 
scholasticism of the Middle Ages, and that 
"noontide of the papacy which was the world's 
moral midnight" was fast approaching. 



X 



THE PAPACY — AN EDUCATIONAL 
PROBLEM 

Previous chapters have revealed these facts: 
I . That the Jewish nation was set as a Hght to the 
world. This light was to shine by means of edu- 
cation, and the Jews were to be teachers of the 
nations. 2. The Jewish nation lost its position 
as leader in educational reform, and, consequently, 
in all other particulars, because it departed from 
the pure system of education delivered to the 
Fathers, and mingled with the heathen, especially 
with the Greeks and the Egyptians. 

In substantiation of this fact we have these 
words of Neander: ''The Jews, completely imbued 
with the elements of Hellenic culture, endeavored 
to find a mean between it and the religion of their 
fathers, which they had no wish to renounce. To 
this end they availed themselves of the system 
most in vogue with' those who, in Alexandria, 
busied themselves v\^ith religious matters — that 
of the Platonic philosophy, which had already 
156 



JEWISH METHODS OF EDUCATION 157 

acquired a mighty influence over their own intel- 
lectual hfe. . . . On the one hand, they firmly 
adhered to the religion of their fathers. . . . On 
the other hand, their minds were possessed by a 
philosophical culture at variance with these convic- 
tions. They were themselves not unconscious of 
the conflicting elements that filled their minds, and 
must have felt constrained to seek some artificial 
method of combining them into a harmonious 
whole. Thus they would be involuntarily driven 
to intercalate in the old records of religion^ which 
for them possessed the highest authority, a sense 
foreign to their true spirit^ supposing all the while 
that they were thereby really exalting their dignity 
as the source of all wisdom." ^ 3. This intercala- 
tion of Greek philosophy with the truth delivered 
to the Jewish nation brought the schools of the 
Hebrews to such a position that the Son of man, 
when receiving His education, avoided them alto- 
gether, and in His public teaching warned His peo- 
ple against the schools of the doctors, who for the 
Word of God taught the traditions of men. This 
mingling of education then meant the crucifixion 
of Christ and the ruin of the Jewish nation. 
4. The early Christian church, composed of mem- 

1 "Church History," Torrey's trans, vol. i, pages 71, 73. 



158 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

bers called out from the Jewish schools and from 
the purely pagan doctrines, at first taught their 
children truths based upon the Scriptures; but 
before the close of the first century, the tendency to 
commingle Christian teachings and heathen philos- 
ophy was already noticeable. Paul, writing to the 
Thessalonians, referring to this fact, said, ' ' The 
mystery of iniquity doth already work." 

This tendency, seen in the days of Paul, 

erew into a habit; and as Christian youth 
education ^ -^ 

sophistry Prepared for gospel work by attending 

the schools at Alexandria and elsewhere, 

an entire change took place. 

It now becomes our duty to follow this changed 

system of education, which is indeed but a mixture 

of Christian and pagan, and hence not a separate 

and distinct system at all. It was designated by 

the apostle to the Gentiles as ' * the mystery of 

iniquity." As found in the third century, Mosheim 

described it thus: *'It is necessary, however, to 

observe that the methods now used of defending 

Christianity, and attacking Judaism and idolatry, 

degenerated much from the primitive simplicity, 

and the true rule of controversy. The Christian 

doctors y who had been educated in the schools of 



PAPAL SOPHISTRY i59 

the rhetoricians and sophists, rashly employed the 
arts and evasions of their subtle masters in the 
service of Christianity; and, intent only upon de- 
feating the enemy, they were too little attentive 
to the means of victory, indifferent whether they 
acquired it by artifice or plain deahng. This 
method of disputing, which the ancients called 
economical, and which had victory for its object, 
rather than truth, was, in consequence of the pre- 
vailing taste for rhetoric and sophistry, almost 
universally approved."^ 

The effect of the Christian schools' teaching 
Greek literature, sophistry, and rhetoric was bear- 
ing its fruit in an unmistakable way. The sim- 
plicity of the gospel and of the man of God, who 
was the truth, was fast passing away. Even at 
this early date we find the germ of the order of 
Jesuits, who, in the Middle Ages, carried out the 
theory of the Platonists, and asserted '' that it was 
no sin for a person to employ falsehood and falla- 
cies for the support of truth, when it was in dan- 
ger of being borne down." It was at this time, 
and under the influence of these same doctors and 

2 '< Church History," Maclain's trans., cent, i, part 2, chap. 3, 
par. 10. 



l6o THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

teachers, that there arose the practice of attrib- 
uting the writing of certain books to illustrious 
authors; ''hence, the book of canons, which cer- 
tain artful men ascribed falsely to the apostles, 
. . . and many other productions of that nature, 
which, for a long time, were too much esteemed by 
credulous men."^ How far men had departed 
from the simplicity of the gospel is evident. 
Error ^^^ spread of ideas contrary to the 

Intro- purity of the gospel was almost univer- 

duced by sally begun in the schools professing to 
eac ers ^^ Christian; and teachers were, almost 
without exception, the leaders in these intellectual 
moves, which in reality form the basis for every 
change in government or religion. Throughout 
the history of the centuries, men have arisen who 
were noted for their intellectual prowess, men of 
strong mind, who vv^ere searching for truth. By 
tracing the work of a few representative teachers 
through the first three or four centuries, we see the 
papacy appearing as the direct result of educa- 
tional principles. 

In order to make this clear, let us begin with 
the teachings of Clement in the school of Alexan- 
dria. It may be hard to distinguish between truth 

5 Idefn. 



ORIGIN OF PAPAL PRINCIPLES i6l 

and error, as we trace the intricate windings of 
philosophy in the days of the early church; but it 
is necessary to find the origin of those leading 
principles of the papacy against which the Refor- 
mation contended. In order to do so, we go to 
the source of the stream, which is usually found 
at Alexandria, in the schools conducted by Chris- 
tian teachers, or doctors, as they are often called. 
The foremost, the all-absorbing doctrine of the 
papacy, is the substitution of works for faith. 
Christ's one lesson, illustrated in hundreds of ways, 
to the multitudes and to the few, was wisdom by 
faith, eternal life by faith. The early church 
was founded upon this principle, and faith in 
God's Word was the first maxim in the home 
school, in the church school, and in the seminaries 
of the early Christians. Faith gives the hearing 
ear, as in the case of Solomon; this gives the 
ability to study, which brings true wisdom. 

How or where faith was lost can not be 

Corruption s^^ted in positive terms. As wood, 

took place , ^ , , , . . , 

sraduallv ^^^^^ favorable conditions, changes, bit 

by bit, into solid stone, one atom of 

wood giving place to a grain of sand, and so 

on till the form of the tree, once an embodi- 



1 62 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

ment of life, now lies a hard and lifeless stone, 
retaining, however, each scar of branch and 
leaf, each crack or wrinkle of the bark, yea, 
even the annual marks of growth and the grain 
of the wood; so faith in God's Word was lost, 
atom by atom, and the lost faith was replaced 
by human philosophy. Alexandria was to the 
Christian school what the marsh is to the fallen 
tree. Much Greek philosophy contained elements 
of truth; many truths were by the Greeks put in 
brilliant settings. God himself had evidently re- 
vealed to the minds of men, such as Plato, Pythag- 
oras, Aristotle, and others, principles of truth; 
but it was not supposed that men to whom had 
been opened the treasures of wisdom and knowl- 
edge through His word and through His Son should 
ever find it necessary to search for a few gems of 
truth amidst a mass of error. Turning from the 
pure light to search for these stray thoughts in 
Greek philosophy, men lost their faith in God^ 
failed to give His word its proper place ^ and ere- 
long the living, fruit-bearing tree was but an image 
of its former self, molded in stone. 

That the reader may see that this mingling of 
truth and error was adopted in place of the pure 



CLEMENT'S SCHOOL WORK 163 

word, he is referred to Neander's description of 
Clement and his quotations of that eminent 
scholar's reasoning/ 

Without taking the space necessary to 
Clemenrs ^.-^^^ ^j^-^ quotation, we pass to the 
school , , , 1 1 1 • 

. thought that Clement mtroduced this 

Greek philosophy into the school he 
was teaching, and through his disciples paved the 
way for the papacy in its power. Of the Alexan- 
drian school we read: ''What was the original aim 
of the school itself ? Was it at the outset merely 
an institution for communicating religious instruc- 
tion to the heathen, or had there long existed in 
Alexandria a school for educating teachers for the 
Christian church — a sort of theological seminary 
for the clergy? . . . We find that originally a 
single person was appointed by the bishop of Alex- 
andria to hold the office of catechist, whose business 
it was to give religious instruction to the heathen 
and probably also to the children of the Christians 
in that place. . . . Men were required for this 
office who possessed a perfect acquaintance with 
the Grecian religion, and most especially must 

THEY HAVE RECEIVED A PHILOSOPHICAL EDUCATION, 

SO AS TO BE ABLE TO CONVERSE AND TO DISPUTE 

*See Torrey's trans., voL 2, page 237. 



164 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

WITH ANY LEARNED PAGANS, who, after long inves- 
tigation on other questions, might turn their atten- 
tion to Christianity. 

*'// was not enough to teach here^ as in other 
churches^ the main doctrines of Christianity. 
. . . With these enlightened catechumens, 
it was necessary to go back to the primitive 
sources of the rehgion in Scripture itself, and to 
seek to initiate them into the understanding of 
it — for such required a faith which would stand 
the test of scientific examination.'''^ 

In order to meet the demands made by pagans 
and Greek philosophers the school stooped from 
its exalted position of teaching a wisdom acquired 
by faith, and substituted a course of study which 
** would stand the test of scientific examination.'' 
Clement, one of the earliest teachers 
Clement -^^ ^j^-g school, "points out the need 
and higher .... 1 • , 1 1 ,11 

... . of high and rich talents in the holder 

of the catechetical office at Alexandria." 
"The range of instruction imparted by these 
men," says Neander, "gradually extended itself, 
for they were the first who . . . attempted to 
satisfy a want deeply felt by numbers — the want 

5 "Church History," vol. 2, pages 224, 225. 



BEGINNING OF HIGHER CRITICISM 165 

of a scientific exposition of the faith, and of a 
Christian science." Here is perhaps the best 
place for one to attribute the change from faith 
to a scientific demonstration of the truths of the 
universe. Here is marked the time, so far as 
one is able to point it out with definiteness, of 
the transit from education by faith to education 
of the senses, from the spiritual to the intel- 
lectual and the physical. The fruit and the utter 
folly of the wisdom of the Greek and Egyptian 
sages (.'^) of this intellectual system are seen in its 
ripened state in the Dark Ages. 

^. , , The same paragraph in Neander con- 
Christian i^ & r 

students tinues : ' ' To their school were attracted 

fed on not only those educated pagans, who, 

pagan having by their teaching been converted 

ideas 

to Christianity, and being seized with 

a desire to devote themselves and all they pos- 
sessed to its service, chose . . . the Alexandrian 
catechists for their guides, but also those youths^ 
who, having been brought up within the Chris- 
tian pale, were thirsting after a more profound 
knowledge, in order to prepare themselves for 
the office of church teachers.''^ 

^ Ideniy page 226. 



i66 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

This school did not find its pathway 

always strewn with roses; for there 
voices 

were church teachers of the primitive 

class * * who looked chiefly to the practical and 
real, . . . and who were in continual dread of 
a corruption of Christianity by the admixture 
of foreign philosophical elements," and these 
offered some opposition to the transit from an 
education of faith in God's Word to one of sci- 
entific investigation and reason. 

Those were days of lively debate, and 
Cetnen s ^j^^ defenders of Christian education 
justifi- ^ .... 

cation niore than once contended for its 

principles. * * ' Thus much, ' observes 
Clement, ' I would say to those who are so fond 
of complaining: if the philosophy is unprofitable, 
still the study of it is profitable, if any good is 
to be derived from thoroughly demonstrating that 
it is an unprofitable thing.' " This argument is 
indulged in at the present time by those who 
espouse the cause of modern education, and wish 
to defend the study of the classics and the doctrine 
of evolution. 

The words of Clement in his arguments sound 
doubly striking, when we remember that to-day 



CLEMENT LOST HIS FAITH 167 

the feeling that the education of the senses will 
ultimately tend to the grasping of eternal truth 
by faith is just as firmly held as then, notwith- 
standing the fact that a careful investigation shows 
that this can never be the case, and that the 
only avenue to truth is through faith, first, last, 
and all the time. He says: ''Perhaps the latter 
[philosophy] was given to the Greeks in a 
special sense, as preliminary to our Lord calling 
the Gentiles, since it educated them as the law 
did the Jews, for Christianity; and philosophy was 
a preparatory step for those who were to be 
conducted through Christ to perfection.""^ 

Accordingly, we find Clement perpet- 

emen ually verging toward the gnostic or 
lost his 
faith platonic position, **With an idea of 

faith which flowed from the very es- 
sence of Christianity, there was associated in his 
mind the still lingering notion, derived from the 
Platonic philosophy, of an opposition between a 
religio7i of cultivated minds ^ and arrived at by the 
medium of science, and a religion of the many, 
who were shackled by the senses and entangled 
in mere opinion." ^ 

■'' Idem, page 238. 8 Jdem^ page 242. 



l68 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

Here is distinctly seen the beginnings 

of that system of education which ele- 
the papacy 

vates the few and holds the masses in 

subjection. Herein Hes the wellspring of a monar- 
chical government and a papal hierarchy. It was 
the propagation of the system of education intro- 
duced into the Alexandrian school by Clement that 
formed the papacy. We are not surprised to read 
in history of the contest between the churches of 
Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome. Rome as 
arbiter was called to decide between the Greek 
Catholics and the Alexandrians; and from the 
downfall of both her rivals she gained the pon- 
tifical throne; but it was only to crown the educa- 
tional ideas of the Alexandrian school, and sway 
the world by the enforcement of the principles of 
that system of instruction which substitutes scien- 
tific i^esearch for faith. 

God had once called his people out of Egypt; 
but the church, forsaking the purity of the gospel, 
returned thither for its education. The Reforma- 
tion was its second call, and to-day the third call is 
sounding. Having followed with some care the 
ideas first introduced by Clement, and finding that 
the result of the position taken by this teacher was 



ORIGEN'S METHOD 169 

that faith was destroyed and scientific reason sub- 
stituted, we turn to the further development of this 
educational idea as advocated by one of Clement's 
most noted pupils and his successor in the Alexan- 
drian school. I refer to Origen. 

Orie^en was born 185 A. D., in Alexan- 
Origen ^ ^ 

dria; he received a most liberal educa- 
tion, and was initiated at an early age into Hellenic 
science and art; the principles of Christianity were 
instilled into his mind by such teachers as Clement 
of Alexandria.^ '' He says himself that it was an 
outward motive that first led him to busy himself 
with the study of Platonic philosophy, and to make 
himself better acquainted generally with the sys- 
tems of those who differed from himself. Tke 
moving cause was his intercourse with heretics 
and pagans who had received a philosophical 
education.'' 

** Attracted by his great reputation, such per- 
sons " came often to him, and he thus defends 
himself for bestowing his time on the Greek phi- 
losophy: *'When I had wholly devoted my time 
to the promulgation of the divine doctrines, and the 
fame of my skill in them began to be spread 
abroad, so that both heretics and others, such as 

^ See Chambers's Encyclopedia. 



I70 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

had been conversant with the Greek sciences, and 
particularly men from the philosophical schools, 
came to visit me, it seemed to me necessary that I 
shotild examine the doctrinal opinions of the here- 
tics^ and what the philosophers pretended to know 
of the truth:' ^^ 

These facts concerning Origen are given because 
the argument is strikingly similar to that used by 
many ministers and teachers of the present day, 
and because it shows how the Platonic philosophy 
gained such a foothold in so-called Christian 
schools, and grew into the papacy. 
P There are three individuals who stand 

sentatives as representatives of three systems of 
of three education. Plato personifies heathen 
systems philosophy; Christ said of Himself, '*I 
am the . . . truth; " Origen personifies the mix- 
ture of the two, — truth and error, — and hence 
stands, from an educational standpoint, as the 
father of the papacy^ which is the mystery of 
iniquity. It behooves us now to follow carefully 
the work of this man. After doing so, one can 
more readily understand why the beast is repre- 
sented as having several heads." 

^''Quoted by Neander, "Church History," vol, 2, pp. 463, 464. 
"Rev. 13 : I. 



SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY 171 

P ... I quote' extensively from Mosheim: 

displaced * ' The principal doctrines of Christianity 
by specu- were now explained to the people in their 
lation native purity and simplicity, without any 

mixture of abstract reasonings or subtile inven- 
tions; nor were the feeble minds of the multitude 
loaded with a great variety of precepts. But the 
Christian doctors who had applied themselves 
to the study of letters and philosophy, soon aban- 
doned the frequented paths, and struck out into 
the devious wilds of fancy. The Egyptians dis- 
tinguished themselves in this new method of 
explaining the truth. They looked upon it as a 
noble and glorious task to bring the doctrines of 
celestial wisdom into a certain subjection to the 
precepts of their philosophy, and to make deep and 
profound researches into the intimate and hidden 
nature of those truths which the divine Saviour 
had delivered to his disciples. Origen was at 

THE HEAD OF THIS SPECULATIVE TRIBE. This 

great man, enchanted by the charms of the 
Platonic philosophy^ set it up as the test of all 
religion, and imagined, that the reasons of each 
doctrine were to be found in that favorite philoso- 
phy^ and their nature and extent to be determined 



172 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

by it. It must be confessed that he handled this 
matter with modesty and with caution; but he still 
gave an example to his disciples, the abuse of 
which could not fail to be pernicious, and under 
the authority of which, they would naturally 
indulge themselves without restraint in every wan- 
ton fancy. And so, indeed, the case was; for the 
disciples of Origen, breaking forth from the limits 
fixed by their master, interpreted, in the most 
licentious manner, the divine truths of religion 
according to the tenor of Platonic philosophy. 
From these teachers the philosophical or scholastic 
theology derives its origin." ^^ 

Mosheim says : * ^ Origen unquestionably 

, stands at the head of the interpreters of 
of higher ^ 

criticism ^^^ Bible in this century. But with 
pain it must be added, he was first 
among those who have found in the Scriptures a 
secure retreat for all errors and idle fancies. As 
this most ingenious man could see no possible 
method of vindicating all that is said in the 
Scriptures against the cavils of the heretics and 
the enemies of Christianity, provided he inter- 
preted THE LANGUAGE OF THE BiBLE LITERALLY, 
12 "Church History," Maclain's trans., cent. 3, chap. 3, par. i. 



HIGHER CRITICISM IS PLATONISM 1/3 

he concluded that he must expound the sacred 
volume in the way in which the Platonists were 

ACCUSTOMED TO EXPLAIN THE HISTORY OF THEIR 
GODS. " " 

Hlirher Murdock, in his notes, says: ''Origen 
criticism perversely turned a large part of Biblical 
is Piato- history into moral fables and many of 
" ^^ the laws into allegories. Probably he 

learned this in the school of Ammonius, which 
expounded Hesiod, Homer, and the whole fabulous 
history of the Greeks allegorically. The predeces- 
sors of Origen, who searched after a mystical sense 
of Scripture, still set a high value on the grammat- 
ical, or literal, sense; but he often expresses him- 
self, as if he attached no value to it. Before him 
allegories were resorted to, only to discover pre- 
dictions of future events and rules for moral 
conduct; but he betook himself to allegories in 
order TO establish the principles of his phi- 
losophy on a Scriptural basis. ... His pro- 
pensity to allegories must be ascribed to the 
fertility of his invention, the prevailing custom 
of the Egyptians, his education, the instructions 
he received from his teachers, and the example 
*' Idem, Murdock's trans., cent. 3, part 2, chap. 3, par. 5. 



174 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

both of the philosophers, of whom he was an 
admirer, and of the Jews. . . . He hoped, by 
means of his allegories, more easily to convince 
the Jews, to confute the gnostics, and to silence 
the objections of both. But we must not forget 
his attachment to that system of philosophy which 
he embraced. This philosophy could not be recon- 
ciled with the Scriptures ; . . . and therefore the 
Scriptures must be interpreted allegorically, that 
they might not contradict his philosophy. ... As 
the body is the baser part of man, so the literal is 
the less worthy sense of Scripture; and as the 
body often betrays good men into sin, so the literal 
sense often leads us into error." 
Here is Mosheim himself tells us how Origen 
reason determined when a passage should be 
above interpreted literally and when allegor- 

^ ically: "Whenever the words, if under- 

stood literally, will afford a valuable meaning, one 
that is worthy of God, useful to men, and accord- 
ant with truth and correct reason, the7t the literal 
meaning is to be retained; but whenever the 
words, if understood literally, will express what 
is absurd, or false, or contrary to correct reason^ 
or uselesSy or unworthy of God, then the literal 



FAITH CAST ASIDE FOR REASON 1/5 

sense is to be discarded, and the moral and mys- 
tical alone to be regarded. This rule he applies to 
every part both of the Old Testament and the 
New." This reasoning is sufficiently strong for 
any of our modern higher critics. If it led directly 
to the removal of the Word of God from the com- 
mon people of the Middle Ages, because teachers 
adjudged no minds but their own capable of deter- 
mining whether a certain passage should be inter- 
preted literally or allegorically, to what will the 
same treatment of the Scriptures now lead 1 And 
if the disciples of Origen lacking the caution of the 
great teacher, were led into the gross licentiousness 
of the heathen, how much of the wickedness of 
modern society should be attributed to the spirit 
of higher criticism, echoed from the pulpit, and 
breathed from the schoolroom } 
Minds Mosheim continues: '*He [Origen] as- 

prepared signs two reasons why fables and literal 
for the absurdities are admitted into the Sacred 
papacy Volume. The first is, that if the literal 
meaning were always rational and good, the reader 
would be apt to rest in it, and not look after the 
moral and mystical sense. The second is, that 
fabulous and incongruous representations often 



1/6 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

afford moral and mystical instructions which could 
not so well be conveyed by sober facts and repre- 
sentations." 

Perhaps this is enough to show that scholas- 
ticism, or a philosophical interpretation of the 
Scriptures had its origin in the Christian schools. 
By this it is plain why these youth became 
papists, instead of followers of the meek and 
lowly Galilean. There was no other theory which 
could, so effectually as this, have stamped out 
faith. No other teaching than this same higher 
criticism could have more truly developed that 
power which * ' speaketh great words against the 
Most High, and thinketh to change times and 
laws. " It formed the beast in the third century; 
it is forming the image to the beast in the present 
century. Students under such instruction had 
received ample preparation for a belief in the right 
of the church to interpret Scripture, and a belief 
in the infallibihty of the pope. 
Shi t'= ^^ have seen the origin of two of the 
cism and streams which, uniting, helped swell 
higher the torrent of the papacy. There are 
criticism g^.|j Q^j^gj. tributaries to this mighty 
river. Each rises somewhere in heathendom, 



MYSTICISM 177 

flows with a devious course, but finally, as if in 
accordance with some great natural law, unites 
with those other currents in forming the mystery 
of iniquity. Each stream is an educational prin- 
ciple, opposed in itself to Christianity; but instead 
of being lost in the depths of the main channel, 
it seems to develop greater power of doing evil, 
and brings its adherents into more complete degra- 
dation after the minghng than before. 

The third principle which presents itself 
Mysticism . , . . , 

for analysis is known as mysHctsm. 

Both the teachings of Clement and the scholasti- 
cism of Origen exalted reason above faith. Mys- 
ticism was advocated by Origen and later by 
Augustine. It is defined as ''that faculty of 
reason, from which proceeds the health and 
vigor of the mind, ... an emanation from God 
into the human soul, and comprehended in it 
the principles and elements of all truth, human 
and divine."^* There is a spark of divinity in 
every man. It is the object of Christian educa- 
tion to develop the image of Christ in the human 
being; but with the mystics, it was maintained 

^* Mosheim, "Church History," Maclain's trans., cent. 3, chap. 
3, par. 2. 

12 



178 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

that ' ' silence, tranquillity, repose, and solitude, 

accompanied with such acts of mortification as 

might tend to extenuate and exhaust the body, 

were the means by which the hidden and internal 

word was excited to produce its latent virtues 

and to instruct men in the knowledge of divine 

things." 

It is not so much with the doctrine as 

Education ^[^]^ ^^g results which were wrought by 

^ ^ .. the teachinsfs of such doctrine, that we 
to decline ^ ' 

are concerned. From an adherence to 
this method of reasoning arose the whole monk- 
ish system; for, says Mosheim, ''This method 
of reasoning produced strange effects, and drove 
many into caves and deserts, where they macerated 
their bodies vs^ith hunger and thirst, and submitted 
to all the miseries of the severest discipline that a 
gloomy imagination could prescribe. ' ' Egypt soon 
swarmed with these fanatics, and the whole history 
of the Dark Ages circles around them. They 
broke the bonds of family affection, overturned 
governments, and seated popes. Draper, speaking 
of the monks, says: ''It is said that there were at 
one time in that country [Egypt] of these religious 
recluses not fewer than seventy-six thousand males 



MONKS AND EDUCATION 179 

and twenty-seven thousand females. With count- 
less other uncouth forms, under the hot sun of that 
climate they seemed to be spawned from the mud 
of the Nile." *' From Egypt and Syria monachism 
spread like an epidemic. " ' ' It was significantly 
observed that the road to ecclesiastical elevation lay 
through the monastery porch, and often ambition 
contentedly wore for a season the cowl, that it 
might seize more surely the miter. " ^^ 

We shall need to study the monastic 
system as the repositories of learning 
schools ^^ ^^ Dark Ages, and therefore give 
but a passing glance at the origin of 
the order in the doctrine of mysticism. Its evils 
can not be portrayed without a blush, and it was 
against this system, taking as it did into its 
clutches the education of the masses, that the 
Reformation thrust its weight. We have seen 
truth struggling against error. It was in the 
schools of the early Christians that wisdom by 
faith was taught. It was into these same schools 
that pagan philosophy crept. It was the teacher 
who espoused this philosophy, and again a teacher 
who opposed it. Students imbibed the ideas of 

15 "Intellectual Development of Europe," vol. i, pages 432, 434. 



l8o THE PAPACY AND EDUCAilON 

the leading educators, and became church teachers. 
The strongest minds, turning from the Word, and 
that alone, became expounders of philosophy and 
the sciences. 

Gradually error prevailed, until in the 

Schools of , , , ^ ^- 1 • 

schools, almost entirely m monastic 
the Dark 

^ggg hands, truth was so covered that D' Au- 

• bigne's description of the work of the 
schoolmen of the Dark Ages is striking. He says : 

* * These industrious artisans of thought had unrav- 
eled every theological idea, and of all their threads 
had woven a web, under which it would have been 
difficult for more skillful persons than their con- 
temporaries to recognize the truth in its pristine 
purity." 

It is not the province of this chapter to deal 
with theological controversies in themselves. It 
is only as these controversies took possession of 
and molded the courses of study in the schools; 
only as they found their strongest supporters in the 
persons of teachers, and were carried to the world 
by students, that our attention is drawn to another 
line of argument, which, as it were, clenched the 
work of the papacy, and gave it its power over the 
minds of men. 



FALSE EDUCATION AND PENANCE i8i 

Quoting again from D'Aubigne: **The 
Pelagian doctrine, expelled by Augustine 
from the church when it had presented 
itself boldly, insinuated itself as demi-Pelagianism, 
and under the mask of the Augustine forms of 
expression. This error spread with astonishing 
rapidity throughout Christendom. The danger of 
the doctrine was particularly manifested in this, — 
that by placing goodness without, and not within, 
the heart, it set a great value on external actions, 
legal observances, and penitential works. . . . 
Whilst Pelagianism corrupted the Christian doc- 
trine, it stre7igthened the hierarchy. . . . When 
it laid down a doctrine that man could attain a 
state of perfect sanctification, it affirmed also that 
the merits of saints and martyrs might be applied 
to the church. . . . Pelagianism multiplied rites 
and ceremonies. 

'* But it was especially by the system of penance^ 
which flowed immediately from Pelagianism, that 
Christianity was perverted. At first, penajice had 
consisted in certain public expressions of repent- 
ance. . . . By degrees it was extended to every 
sin, even to the most secret. . . . Instead of look- 
ing to Christ for pardon, through faith alone, it was 



1 82 THE PAPACY AND EDUCATION 

sought for principally in the church through peni- 
tential works. . . . Flagellations were superadded 
to these practices. . . . They accordingly invented 
that system of barter celebrated under the title of 
Indulgences. ... A bull of Clement VII declared it 
an article of faith. . . . The philosophers of Alex- 
andria had spoken of a fire in which men were to 
be purified. Many ancient doctors had adopted 
this notion; and Rome declared this philosophical 
opinion a tenet of the church. The pope by a bull 
annexed purgatory to his domain.'' ^^ ** The Cath- 
olic Church was not the papacy," says D' Aubigne. 
* * The latter was the oppressor, the former the 
oppressed." Draper tersely defines the papacy as 

**THE TYRANNY OF THEOLOGY OVER THOUGHT." 

Men departed from the simplicity of a 
gospel by faith. Reason and scientific 
research took the place of faith in the Word. Edu- 
cation turned men's minds from God to self, and 
reason was exalted. The papacy was thus formed. 
If we look for a visible union of the church and 
the state before recognizing it as the papacy, we 
shall find ourselves entrapped; for it is the work- 
ing out of a system of education based on human 
philosophy that forms the papacy ; and the body 

1^ "History of the Reformation," book i, chap. I. 



PAPISTS HATE, CHRISTIANS EDUCATE 183 

which adopts this system of education naturally 

turns to the state for support. 

It is because of the truth of this state- 
Papacy 
QyQf„ ment that the papacy wields its influence 

thrown by through its schools; this is why it has 

Christian always feared a revival of learning more 

than the combined forces of all the 

armies of the world. A death-blow to the papacy 

can be struck only by introducing a system of 

education founded upon the teachings of Christ, 

placing God's V/ord as guide, and inspiring faith 

as the one avenue to wisdom. 



XI 

EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

The development of the papacy led directly 
to the Dark Ages, for * ' the noontide of the 
papacy was the world's moral midnight." The 
papacy was the logical working out of an educa- 
tional scheme; hence the moral darkness which 
spread over the world during the prophetic period 
of twelve hundred and sixty years was due to 
wrong methods of education. People do not sink 
into degradation and sin when properly educated. 
Truth elevates, and, when "embodied in man, 
brings him nearer to his Maker. Faith is the 
ladder by which he climbs, and when that ele- 
ment has been lacking in an educational system, 
the masses have sunk lower and lower. 

_ . Mind is a wonderful thing:, the most 

Papacy's ° 

tyranny profound study of the universe. It was 
of theol= designed to be free, to grasp the mighty 
ogy over jg^^g ^f j^g ^^^ Creator, and a means 

was supplied by which that very thing 
could be done: **If any of you lack wisdom, let 

184 



PAPAL PRIMARY SCHOOLS 185 

him ask of God, . . . but let him ask in faith, 
nothing wavering." 

In order to maintain the supremacy thus 
gained, it was necessary for the education of the 
young to he wholly within the control of the 
papal hierarchy; and it is with their educational 
institutions and educational methods that we have 
now to deal. It is hoped that the study of the 
Dark Ages will so accentuate the importance of 
Protestants' maintaining their own schools, that 
the tendency now so strong in the other direc- 
tion may receive a check. The education begun 
in the schools of the early Christians has been 
followed into the monastic institutions of the 
Middle Ages. The life and power of Christianity 
departed, and form alone remained. It has been 
said that ''paganism in the garb of Christianity 
walked into the church," and it can truthfully be 
added that it gained admittance through the 
schools. 

In order to trace carefully the education 

^^^ offered by the papacy, — and that corn- 

primary 
schools prised all that was then offered, — the 

first quotations are concerning primary 

instruction. Laurie says: ''Instruction began 



i86 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

about the age of seven. The alphabet, written 

on tables or leaves, was learned by heart by the 

children, then syllables and words. The first 

reading-book was the Latin psalter, and this was 

read again and again until it could be said by 

heart; and numerous priests, and even monks, 

were content all their lives with the mere sound 

of Latin words, which they could both read and 

recite, but did not understand."^ 

_ . Note carefully that work for these chil- 

Promi- ^ 

nence of d^^n was almost wholly me^nory work. 
memory They were to learn by heart and to 
work repeat without understanding. This 

was the first step in that great system which 
binds the minds of the masses to the will of one 
sovereign mind. 

** Writing followed. " "The elements of arith- 
metic were also taught, but merely with a view 
to the calculation of church days and festivals. " ^ 
* ' Latin was begun very early (appar- 
ently immediately after the psaltery was 
known), with the learning by heart of 
declensions and conjugations and lists of vocables. 

1 " Rise and Constitution of Universities," page 55. 
^ Idem, page 56. 



LATIN IN EDUCATION 1B7 

The rule was to use Latin in the school in con- 
versing. ... In the eleventh century, if not 
earUer, Latin conversation-books . . . were not 
only read, but, like everything else, learned by 
heart.'' ^ Their method of studying Latin empha- 
sizes the thought of the formal abstract way of 
teaching, which tended to conservatism and mental 
subjection. *' Memory is the faculty that subordi- 
nates the present under the past, and its extensive 
training develops a habit of mind that holds by 
what is prescribed, and recoils from the new and 
untried. In short, the educational curriculum that 
lays great stress on memorizing, produces a class of 
conservative people. ' ' * The papal schools em- 
ployed methods which, in themselves, in the course 
of a few generations would develop dependent 
rather than independent thinking; therefore 
methods are as important as the subject taught. 
Again it is well to remember that there 

Result of ^^g^g ^ deep design in making the Latin 

universal . , _ . , 

tongue universal. It was one of the 
language ° 

ways by which the papacy kept its con- 
trol of all nations and tongues. Draper explains 
it thus: — 

* W. T. Harris, U. S. Commissioner of Education. ^ idem. 



i88 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

**The unity of the church, and, therefore, its 
power, required the use of Latin as a sacred 
language. Through this Rome had stood in an 
attitude strictly European, and was enabled to 
maintain a general international relation. It gave 
her far more power than her asserted celestial 
authority. . . . Their officials could pass without 
difficulty into every nation, and communicate 
without embarrassment with each other, from 
Ireland to Bohemia, from Italy to Scotland."^ 

The character of the youth was formed, 
and tradi- says Painter, from memorizing ' ' the 
tJons of fables of ^sop and collections of max- 
'"®" ims and proverbs. After this, Virgil 

was usually the text-book, and was handled in the 
same style." 

Of the monastic schools Mosheim says: 

' * In most of the schools, the so-called 
Monastic 
schools seven liberal arts were taught. The 

pupil commenced with grammar, then 
proceeded to rhetoric, and afterward to logic or 
dialectics. Having thus mastered the Trivium, as 
it was called, those who aspired to greater attain- 
ments proceeded with slow steps through the 

^ " Intellectual Development of Europe," vol. 2, page 191. 



LOGIC IN THE SCHOOL 189 

Quadrivium [a course including arithmetic, music, 
geometry, and astronomy] to the honor of per- 
fectly learned men."^ 

Says Painter: '< Seven years were devoted to 
the completion of the course in liberal arts [the 
Trivium and the Quadrivium. . . . Dialectic or 
logic was based somewhat remotely on the writ- 
ings of Aristotle. At a later period, logic was rig- 
idly applied to the development of theology, and 
gave rise to a class of scholars called the school- 
men. . . . Arithmetic was imperfectly taught, 
importance being attached to the supposed secret 
properties of numbers. Geometry was taught in 
an abridged form, while astronomy did not differ 
materially from astrology. The study of music 
consisted chiefly in learning to chant the hymns 
of the church."^ 

Mosheim thus continues his description 
Greater ^f ^j^^ ^^^.j^ ^f ^j^^ schools in the elev- 
emphasis , ^, . r , 

. . enth century: "This course of study, 

adopted in all the schools of the West, 
was not a little changed after the middle of this 
century. For logic, . . . having been improved 

^** Church History," cent. 11, part 2, chap, i, sec. 5. 
' "History of Education," page 100. 



190 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

by the reflection and skill of certain close thinkers, 
and being taught more fully and acutely, acquired 
such an ascendency in the minds of the majority, 
that they neglected grammar, rhetoric, and the 
other sciences, both the elegant and the abstruse, 
and devoted their whole lives to dialectics, or to 
logical and metaphysical discussions. For who- 
ever was well acquainted vv^ith dialectics, or what 
we call logic and metaphysics, v\^as supposed to 
possess learning enough, and to lose nothing by 
being ignorant of all other branches of learning. 
„ . . In this age, the philosophy of the Latins was 
confined wholly to what they called dialectics; and 
the other branches of philosophy were unknown 
even by name. Moreover their dialectics was mis- 
erably dry and barren." ^ 

This is sufficient, perhaps, on the use of 

^ "^" language and logic, and we turn to geog- 
tical r 1 • X- 

Oeojrraohv ^^P^Y ^^^ some of the sciences. Even 

the children to-day will smile at the 
teachings of some of the Church Fathers on the 
subject of geography. Says Draper : '' In the Pa- 
tristic Geography the earth is a flat surface bor- 
dered by the waters of the sea, on the yielding 

s " Church History," cent, ii, part 2, chap. I, sec. 5. 



PATRISTICAL GEOGRAPHY 191 

support of which rests the crystalline dome of the 
sky. These doctrines were for the most part sup- 
ported by passages from the Holy Scriptures, per- 
versely wrested from their proper meaning. Thus 
Cosmas Indicopleustes, whose Patristic Geography 
had been an authority for nearly eight hundred 
years, triumphantly disposed of the sphericity of 
the earth by demanding of its advocates, how, in 
the day of judgment, men on the other side of 
a globe could see the Lord descending through 
the air!"' 

^._ .. ^^ was in opposition to such theories, 

The beoe- 

fJcial work ^^^ ^ hundred absurdities concerning 

of ex- the ocean, the boiling waters of the 

plorers equator, the serpents in the West, etc., 
that Columbus, De Gama, and other explorers had 
to contend; and one of the most wonderful effects 
of the work of these navigators was the thrust 
given papal education. A wound was then re- 
ceived which was incurable. 

If, in the m.ind of the reader, the question arises. 
Why should the papal schools teach such things ? 
simply consider that the whole system of papal 
theology was intended to make the people feel that 

^ " Intellectual Development of Europe," vol. 2, page 159. 



192 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

the world was the center of the universe, and that 

the pope was the center of the world. Christ and 

his position in creation were usurped by the head 

of the church. This was the papacy. 

This could be broue^ht about only by edu- 
Modern ° "^ 

schools catiouy and could be maintained only as 
cling to generation after generation was taught 
papal from infancy to old age to place faith 

in man, not God. Not only the sub- 
jects taught, but the manner of teaching them, 
served well the purpose of the papacy. Only 
within the last few years, comparatively speaking, 
have our own schools seen the necessity of break- 
ing away from some of those relics of the educa- 
tional system of the Dark Ages. 

Memory work, pure and simple, has 

Detection . . ^ 

e:iven way m a great measure to re- 
ef wrong ^ . 

methods search and experiment, even in the pri- 
mary grades. The alphabet is no longer 
driven into the childish mind by the ferule, nor 
kept there by mere force of repetition. The 
advanced methods in dealing with the mind are a 
step in the right direction. The pity is that edu- 
cators, while groping for light, while casting off 
some of the moth-eaten garments of past ages, 



METHODS AND MATERIAL IMPORTANT 193 

have failed to see the cause of the evil, and deal 
so largely with results instead of removing the 
cause. The evil began by renouncing the Scrip- 
tures and faith in Holy Writ as a part of education. 
The spirit and power will accompany reform only 
when these are replaced in their proper setting. 
While educators of the world are realiz- 

ins: the need of a changfe in methods, it 
books ^ & > 

is time for them to see also the need of 
a change in subject matter and text-books. Protes- 
tants in particular should arouse to the times. If 
the study of paganism, instead of Christianity or 
truth, produced the Dark Ages, and if wrong 
methods held the minds of men and prolonged 
that darkness, forbidding the shining of the light, 
it is time for both methods and material to be 
reconstructed in the schools of to-day. 

We can with profit notice the attitude of 
Science in ^j^^ papal schools toward some of the 
the papal - . , 

. . sciences, takmg for example that most 

practical of modern branches, the science 
of medicine. What was the work of the physician 
during the Dark Ages } Draper says : ' ' Physicians 
were viewed by the church with dislike, and 
regarded as atheists by the people, who held firmly 

13 



194 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

to the lessons they had been taught, that cures 

must be wrought by reHcs of martyrs and bones of 

saints, by prayers and intercessions." ^** 

It is well to remember that Christ was 

"""^ the Great Physician, healing not only 

healing 
forsaken ^^^^ maladies, but physical infirmities as 

well; and to the apostles was given the 
commission to heal the sick and restore sight to 
the blind. Gradually, however, as the power of 
the gospel in its purity was lost by the substitution 
of error for truth, the leaders of the church 
introduced miracle cures, and preached the efBcacy 
of the bones of saints, etc., in the cure of disease. 
This became popular, and increased throughout 
the Dark Ages. 

Draper describes the fanaticism of the 

monastic schools, and finally assigns a 
study dis- . J ^ 

couraeed reason for the exclusion from them of 

the study of physiology and anatomy and 

the science of medicine. ''The body," he says, 

''was under some spiritual charge, — the first joint 

of the right thumb being in the care of God the 

Father, the second under that of the blessed 

Virgin, and so on of other parts. For each 

^^ "Intellectual Development of Europe," vol. 2, page 121. 



TRUE HEALING FORSAKEN I95 

disease there was a saint. A man with sore eyes 
must invoke St. Clara, but if it were an inflam- 
mation elsewhere, he must turn to St. Anthony. 
. . . For the propitiation of these celestial beings 
it was necessary that fees should be paid, and 
thus the practice of imposture — medicine became 
a great source of profit. In all this there was no 
other intention than that of extracting money."" 
While such was the teachings of the 

^ papacy, the Jews and Mohammedans 
in secret , ^ -^ ** 

were achieving wonderful success, and 
making discoveries of lasting benefit to mankind 
in Spain and Asia Minor. ' ' Bishops, princes, 
kings, and popes had each in private his Hebrew 
doctor; though all understood that he was a 
contraband luxury, in many countries pointedly 
and absolutely prohibited by the law. In the 
eleventh century nearly all the physicians in 
Europe were Jews." One reason for this was: 
**The church would tolerate no interference 
with her spiritual methods of treating disease, 
which fornied one of her most productive sources 
of gain; and the study of medicine had been for- 
mally introduced into the rabbinical schools. "^'^ 

" Idem, ^Idem. 



196 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

The bitter hatred of the papacy toward 

Jewish independence of mind is well illustrated 
physicians , , , ^ • i i • 

Drohibited ^^ ^ treatment that the Jewish physi- 
cians received from the popes. Draper 
says: ''The school at Salerno was still sending 
forth its doctors. In Rome, Jewish physicians 
were numerous, the popes themselves employing 
them. ... At this period Spain and France 
were full of learned Jews; and perhaps partly by 
their exerting too much influence upon the higher 
classes with whom they came in contact (for the 
physician of a Christian prince v/as very often the 
rival of his confessor), and partly because the 
practice of medicine, as they pursued it, inter- 
fered with the gains of the church, the clergy 
took alarm, and caused to be re-enacted or en- 
forced the ancient laws. The Council of Beziers 
(a. d. 1246) and the Council of Alby (a. d. 
1254) prohibited all Christians from resorting to 
the services of an Israelitish physician. " ^^ 

To show that this was a matter which 

concerned the schools, and in proof of 
physicians 

the statement that papal schools still 

adhere to formalism, miracle cure, and relic wor- 

'^^ Idem, page 125. 



HATRED OF PHYSICIANS 197 

ship, we need only to notice that ''the faculty 

of Paris [University], awakening at last to the 

danger of the case, caused, a. d. 1301, a decree 

to be published prohibiting either man or woman 

of the religion of Moses from practicing medicine 

upon any person of the Catholic religion. A 

similar course was pursued in Spain. At this 

time the Jews were confessedly at the head of 

French medicine. It was the appointment of one 

of their persuasion, Profatius, as regent of the 

faculty of Montpellier, a. d. 1300, which drew 

upon them the wrath of the faculty of Paris." 

''The animosity of the French ecclesi- 
Jews 

astics against the Jewish physicians at 

last led to the banishment of all the 

Jews from France, A. d. 1306." * The papal 

universities were unwilling to teach medicine, and 

finding that the Jewish schools of science were 

greatly weakening papal authority in France, this 

race was banished bodily. 

Comparing this history with the present 
Position of , . , r 1 

oh ' lo work of the medical fraternity, and 

especially with that class of medical 

students whose life work is to spread the gospel 

^* Idem^ pages 125, 126. 



198 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

while relieving the body, one better understands 
that physiology should be the basis of every edu- 
cational effort, and the place that it and kindred 
sciences should occupy in the courses of instruction 
pursued by our children, youth, and maturer 
minds; and also the cause of that spiritual 
darkness which is even now hanging over the 
world, and for centuries held Europe in its 
clutches; but it shall be pierced by Christian 
education. 

p J The papacy, in case of opposition which 

method of threatened her authority, had two meth- 
meeting ods of procedure. The first was an 
opposition attempt to annihilate both the trouble 
and the troublers. Thus she simply banished 
all Jews from France that her own universities 
might not be overshadowed by the light of truth. 
Her second method of procedure was a counter- 
reformation; that is, if a reform in education 
arose outside the church which threatened to 
undermine her doctrines, it might be met by 
a partial reform within her borders, the reform 
going only so far as was absolutely necessary to 
satisfy the cravings of minds that dared think 
for themselves. 



MEDICAL STUDY CORRUPTED 199 

p It was not always possible to completely 

can crush a reformation, or the reformers; 

compro- and as was quite often the case in the 
™®® schools, studies which could not be 

entirely banished, were taught, but in such a way 
as best to conserve the needs of the church. 
That medicine, as well as law, was taught in the 
higher papal schools, can not be denied. Says 
Mosheim: '^The seven liberal arts [The Trivium 
and the Quadrivium] were gradually included un- 
der the term philosophy ; to which were added 
theology, jurisprudence, and medicine. And thus 
these four faculties, as they are called, were in 
the next century formed in the universities."^^ 

But in the study of medicine, as in phi- 

® *^* losophy or law, memory work devoid of 

corrupted understanding — the form without the 

spirit — was the characteristic. As the 
saints and martyrs in theology had taken the place 
of the Greek gods and goddesses, so in the study 
of other branches a multitude of pagan terms, 
clothed with what was then known as the * ' Chris- 
tian spirit," was made to satisfy the longing for 
real mental culture. The simplicity of the gospel 
v/as laid aside. What God had revealed was made 

^^ "Church History," cent. 12, part 2, chap, i, par. 4. 



200 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

to appear too complex for the human mind, and 
the secret things which are known only to God 
were pried into. In theology, dialectics, or logic, 
became the study of endless queries, difficult syl- 
logisms, meaningless quibbles. Men delighted in 
propounding such questions as, ' ' How many 
angels can stand on the point of a needle.?" and 
others prided themselves on the acuteness of their 
reasoning powers in arguing such questions. Like- 
wise in medicine, the study of the simple needs 
of the body and the rational treatment of disease 
was obscured by hundreds .of Latin termSy and 
these were memorized to the neglect of the sim- 
ple philosophy of the science. It is with this mul- 
titude of names, hoary with age, and savoring 
strongly of their pagan origin, that the student of 
medicine is still compelled to grapple. 

The history of the rise of European 

universities throws light on the attitude 
as educa= 
tors ^^ ^^ papacy toward education. While 

Europe was overspread by spiritual and 

intellectual darkness, God used another people to 

disseminate truth. When faith in God was lost, 

and in its place was substituted that bhnd faith in 

man and obedience to the church which is known 



ARABS AS EDUCATORS 20i 

in European history as the age of faith, learning 
was propagated by the Arabs. That power which 
had failed to conquer the world by the sword, now 
gained by intellectual culture what the arms of Mo- 
hammed and his immediate successors failed to 
achieve. Spain, while in the hands of the Moors, 
contributed more to European civilization than at 
any other time in her history; and it was as an 
educator and through the influence of her schools 
that the papacy received its blow from the south 
which made her more readily succumb to the re- 
volt of Germany under Luther. By the Arabs 
* * flourishing schools were established in all the 
principal cities, notably at Bagdad and Damascus 
in the East, and at Cordova, Salamanca, and 
Toledo in the West. Here grammar, mathe- 
matics, astronomy, philosophy, chemistry, and 
medicine were pursued with great ardor and suc- 
cess. The Arabians originated chemistry, discov- 
ering alcohol, and nitric and sulphuric acids. 
They gave algebra and trigonometry their modern 
form; applied the pendulum to the reckoning of 
time; ascertained the size of the earth by measur- 
ing a degree, and made catalogues of the stars." ^^ 
And all this was done when Europe as a whole was 

16 "History of Education," page 114. 



202 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

lying in darkness, when the chemist was considered 
a wizard, when astronomy was merely astrology, 
and whatever learning existed was formal and 
spiritless. 

But the discoveries of the Arab teachers 

ra s an ^^q^j^j ^^^ i^^g remain with them alone, 
papal 
schools ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^® spread of their ideas 

through the schools by means of the 
students that we are concerned. ''For a time 
they [the Arabs] were the intellectual leaders of 
Europe. Their schools in Spain were largely 
attended by Christian youth from other European 
countries, who carried back with them to their 
homes the Arabian science, and through it stim- 
ulated intellectual activity in Christian [papal] 
nations." ^^ 

The specialization of studies such as 

Arabs and theology, medicine, or philosophy, to- 
univer° 

... gether with the impulse derived from 

the Mohammedans in Africa and the 
Arabs in Spain, led to the establishment of the 
universities, which were, as before stated, com- 
posed of four faculties, or colleges. * ' They 
arose independently of both church and state." 
The University of Paris ''became the most dis- 

1'' Idem, 



UNIVERSITIES CAPTURED 203 

tinguished seat of learning in Europe. At one 
time it was attended by more than twenty thou- 
sand students." 
Paoacv ^^^ growth of the universities was 

seized very rapid, and they threatened speed- 

« 
univer- ily to revolutionize the society of 

^^ ^^ Europe and overthrow the papal hier- 

archy. ' ' The influence and power of the uni- 
versities were speedily recognized," says Painter; 
^'and though originally free associations, they 
were soon brought into relation with the church 
and the state, by which they were officially 
authorized and endowed." If learning could not 
be suppressed, then it must be controlled by the 
church; and the ''church sought to attach them 
[the universities] to itself, in order to join to the 
power of faith the power of knowledge. The 
first privileges that the universities received pro- 
ceeded from the popes." ** While Rome was not 
the mother, she was yet the nurse of universi- 
ties." Scientific investigation had by this time 
received such an impulse from youth who had 
been students in the Arab schools that the church 
could not hope to crush it. The only hope of 
the papacy was to so surround the truth with 



204 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

fables and mysteries, and to so conduct the 
schools, that again the spirit of progress would 
be lost in its labyrinthine wanderings through 
empty forms. Monopoly in education works 
havoc in the same way that a monopoly in com- 
merce leads to oppression. And so it was. 

' * The students led a free and uncon- 

^>'fic= trolled life, seeking and finding protec- 
terof . . , . . . , . . 

students *^°^ ^^ their own university authorities 

even from the civil power. "^^ 
Oriein of Youth from the age of twelve and up- 
courses ward attended these universities, making 
and de- it necessary to teach the secondary stud- 
grees -^^ which terminated in a bachelor's 

degree. ''Boys . . . attended the Parisian uni- 
versity merely for instruction in . . . grammar, 
rhetoric, and dialectic; and after three or four 
years' study they received the title of Bacca- 
laureus." ''When he reached . . . the age of 
seventeen or eighteen, he then began the study 
for the mastership. " ^^ 

It will be remembered that the schools estab- 
lished by the early church were marked for the 

^8 Laurie, " Rise and Constitution of Universities," page i68, 
"^^ Idem^ pages 219, 220. 



ORIGIN OF COURSES AND DEGREES 205 

simplicity of their methods, and their singleness 
of purpose. Their object was to educate workers 
for the spread of the gospel. For the accomplish- 
ment of this object the course of instruction was 
arranged, and students were sent forth into the 
world commissioned of God, as were the disciples 
after their ordination. There was no call for the 
granting of degrees. These, it is true, were used 
in the pagan schools, and indicated that the re- 
ceiver had been initiated, after years of study, into 
the hidden mysteries of Greek wisdom. Among 
the pagans, indeed, the principle of degrees and 
diplomas dated back to the days of Egyptian and 
Babylonian supremacy, where it was indicative of 
fellowship in the grossest forms of licentiousness. 

Greece, the country which united the learning 
of Babylon and the wisdom of Egypt, and offered 
it to Europe in the form of Platonism, naturally 
enough made use of diplomas and degrees. And 
the fact that her wisdom was so complicated in its 
nature made it necessary to spend long years in 
mastering her sciences. 

Paganism, moreover, has but one model for all 
men; its aim is ever to crush individuality and 
mold all characters alike. To accomplish this pur- 



2o6 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

pose the schools arranged their studies in courses, 
demanding that each student should pass over the 
same ground. This is characteristic of all educa- 
tional systems aside from that one, the true educa- 
tion, which comes from God. If you look to 
China, you find it there, as it develops the disciples 
of Confucius; India educates her Brahmans in the 
same manner; the priests and wise men of Egypt 
were taught in schools of a similar type. The 
Jews had aped the fashion of the pagan world, and 
it was from this custom that Christ called his 
disciples. One of the surest signs that the schools 
established in the days of Christian purity had lost 
the spirit which characterized the apostolic teach- 
ing, is the fact that the schools of the Middle Ages 
had adopted this pagan custom. 

Students were called into the universities when 
mere boys, and by hundreds and thousands were 
run through the "grind" which we term ''course 
of instruction," and were turned out at the end of 
ten, twenty, and sometimes even forty years with 
a degree, which, in dignity, corresponded to the 
years spent in completing the course. 

This custom is papal. It is opposed to the very 
spirit of Christianity; and any institution of learn- 



TRUE EDUCATION AND DEGREES 207 

ing which deigns to accept the approval of the 
state, while at the same time passing as a Chris- 
tian institution, is not only linking itself with the 
papacy, but with paganism as well. Of His fol- 
lowers Christ says, ' ' They are not of the world, 
even as I am not of the world." 

** Older students, those especially in the theo- 
logical faculty, with their fifteen or sixteen years' 
course of study, achieved in this respect far greater 
notoriety. At the age of thirty or forty the student 
at the university was still a scholar. " ^^ The idea 
of long courses is not, then, a modern one, and 
American colleges can truthfully point to the uni- 
versity of Paris for the precedent in this respect as 
in some others. In the granting of degrees another 
interesting subject is approached. Laurie con- 
tinues : '' Up to the middle of the twelfth century, 
anyone taught in the infant universities who 
thought he had the requisite knowledge. ... In 
the second half of the twelfth century, when 
bishops and abbots, who acted, personally or 
through their deputies, as chancellors of the rising 
university schools, wished to assume to themselves 
exclusively the right of granting the license, . . . 
Pope Alexander III forbade them, on the ground 

^^ Idem^ page 169. 



208 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

that the teaching faculty was a gift of God."^^ 
This, however, must have been the work of a hb- 
eral pope, for earUer, — that is, in 1219,— ''Pope 
Honorius III interfered with the granting of de- 
grees; and in order to impose a check on abuses, 
directed that they should be conferred not by, but 
by permission of, the archdeacon of the cathedral, 
and under his presidency." ^^ 

The church had gained control of the univer- 
sities, and through her representative, usually the 
chancellor, gra7ited degrees. Now, in order to 
keep the authority well in her own hands, no one 
was allowed to teach who did not hold a license 
granted by the university after an examination. 
Thus the educational trust developed, and the 
iron hand of Rome, though concealed in a silken 
glove, chnched her victories, and strove to crush 
all opponents. 

Our modern B. S., M. A., LL. D., 

D6srr66S 

; . D. D., etc., were adopted into the 

and the 
papacy universities at this stage of educational 

history. ' ' Itter informs us, " says Laurie, 

* ' that ... a complete university course was 

represented by four degrees — bachelor^ master^ 

^^ Idem, page 222 '^^Idem^ page 227. 



DEGREES AND THE PAPACY 209 

licentiate, and finally doctor, which last was 
usually taken at the age of thirty or thirty-five." 
* ' The next development of the degree system was 
the introduction of the grades of bachelor and 
master, or Hcentiate, into each of the higher 
faculties — theology, law, and medicine. Thus 
a man who had finishsd his preliminary art studies, 
generally at the age of twenty-one, and wished to 
specialize in theology, medicine, or law, had to 
pass through the stages of bachelor of theology, 
or of medicine, or of law, and then of master or 
licentiate, before he obtained the title of doctor. 
The bachelorship of medicine or law was reached 
in three years, of theology in seven. Four years' 
further study brought the doctor' s degree.'' ^^ ** The 
conferring of degrees was originated by a pope."^* 
The educational monoply appeared quite complete; 
and having gained the form of godliness and the 
civil power, the old scheme of killing the life and 
substituting those things which would recognize 
the papal hierarchy, were again introduced. Lead- 
ing educators are awakening to the true situation. 
Christian education alone can deliver. 

23 Idem, page 220. 

2* Rev. B. Hartman, "Religion or No Religion in Education," 
page 43. 

14 



210 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

' ' The moral tone of the universities 
Form had ^^^ j^^,, ^^^^ Painter; ''there were 
replaced 

the life brawls, outbreaks, and abominable im- 
moralities. * The students, ' say the 
Vienna statutes, ' shall not spend more time in 
drinking, fighting, and guitar playing than at 
physics, logic, and the regular courses of lectures; 
and they shall not get up public dances in the 
streets. Quarrelers, wanton persons, drunkards, 
those that go about serenading at night, or who 
spend their leisure in following after lewd women; 
thieves, those that insult citizens, players at dice — 
having been properly warned and not reforming, 
besides the ordinary punishment provided by law 
for those misdemeanors, shall be deprived of their 
academical privileges and expelled. ' These pro- 
hibitions give us a clear insight into university 
life of the time, for it was not worse at Vienna 
than at Paris and elsewhere."^* 

Could some of those medieval students be resur- 
rected and placed in some of the universities of 
the nineteenth century, they might feel quite at 
home, not only as far as courses of study and the 
granting of degrees is concerned, but in revelings, 

2* *' History of Education," pages 115, 116. 



MODERN UNIVERSITIES 21 1 

parties, etc., judging from the reports of the haz- 
ing, drinking, and general carousing of the students 
in our university towns. '"^^ The conduct of stu- 
dents is the reflex of the instruction given. It is 
not, therefore, to be wondered at that the instruc- 
tion of the universities, containing as it did the 
form without the hfe, should fail to develop sta- 
bihty of character in its students. 

* ' The true CathoHc attitude to all investigation 
was, and is, one admitting of great advances in 
every department of learning, while checking all 
true freedom of thought. "^^ 

The North American Review for October, 1842, 
expresses in concise language the relation of stu- 
dents and schools to the general government and 
consequent state of society. It says: ''In the 
colleges is determined the character of most of 
the persons who are to fill the professions, teach 
the schools, write the books, and do most of the 
business of legislation for the whole body of the 
people. The general direction of literature and 
politics, the prevailing habits and modes of thought 

86 (See "Students in Riot," at the Chicago University, Chicago 
Record^ Dec. 2, 1899. 

26 "Rise and Constitution of Universities," page 288. 



212 EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE AGES 

throughout the country, are in the hands of men 
whose social position and early advantages have 
given them an influence, of the magnitude and 
permanency of which the possessors themselves 
are hardly conscious." 

Recognizing this fact, the papacy controlled 
the education of the Middle Ages, and is to-day 
seeking to do the same thing. Luther and other 
reformers, also recognizing this fact, sought to 
overthrow the tyranny of the papacy by establish- 
ing new schools where freedom of thought would 
be fostered through faith in God's Word. 

Protestants to-day, looking upon the sys- 
Protes- t^^ ^^ education as it now exists, and 
tantsto- tracing there the same long courses 
^^y in the classics and the sciences; the 

same degrees granted in a manner similar to 
the Dark Ages, the text-book containing the 
same theories, the same terms, the same doc- 
trines of philosophy; the same tendency toward 
monarchism, or the monopoly of education by 
certain universities, and through them by the same 
power that has borne sway, should, for the sake of 
their government, and for the sake of their faith, 
establish schools of their own. As the papacy, by 



A GREAT WORK FOR PROTESTANTS 213 

the subjection of thought, builds up a monarchy 
in place of democracy; as she in the same way 
overthrows faith in God, substituting faith in man 
or the church, so Protestant schools should edu- 
cate children in the pure principles of that gospel 
freedom which recognizes the equality of every 
man in the sight of heaven, and makes it pos- 
sible for the government to be of, for, and by 
the people by developing the Christian character 
through faith in Jesus Christ. 



XII 

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY REFORMA- 
TION AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

While following the history of education 
through the Dark Ages, we have often been 
compelled to recognize that an influence was at 
work slowly but surely undermining the structure 
which the papacy was, with the greatest persever- 
ance, erecting, and which that power purposed 
should withstand all the attacks brought against it. 
The papacy had calculated well; it had, in absorb- 
ing the educational system of the times, laid its 
hand on the very tap-root of society, and, in 
its education as well as in its doctrines, woven 
about the human race meshes which only the 
Prince of heaven could rend with the sword 
of eternal truth. 

Never has the world seen such an endur- 
Secret of -j^g system as the papacy. Patterned so 

nearly after the truth of God, and resem- 
strength -^ 

bling so closely, both in church govern- 
ment and educational principles, the plan delivered 
214 



SECRET OF PAPAL POWER 215 

to the chosen nation, that only an expert, guided 
by the Spirit of truth, could judge between the 
true and the counterfeit, it had, as had the Jews 
before them, replaced the Ufe by the mere form. 
Nevertheless, so firmly laid was the foundation, and 
so substantially built were the walls, that for cen- 
turies it baffled all attempts at overthrow. 

This structure had as its foundation an educa- 
tional system; the mortar which held the bricks in 
the wall was educational methods, and should the 
building fall, the foundation itself must be attacked. 

As a civil power, the papacy was periodically 
attacked by ambitious kings and princes; but these 
shocks scarcely disturbed the serenity of the papal 
head, so firm v/as his throne. The sword of the 
Mohammedans was broken at Tours; and the 
Crescent, instead of advancing to the full by encir- 
cHng the Mediterranean, waned as its light receded 
to the shores of Africa and the west of Asia. 

What the Turk could not do by force of 

The revival 1 j j • .1 t 

arms, he did m another way. In 1453 

Constantinople fell into the hands of the 
calif, yet this did not affect the strength of the 
papal hierarchy. But as the Turk came into 
Greece, Greek art and literature fled to Italy. 



2i6 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

Here is the attack on the papacy which came from 
the east. Painter says: ''The revival of classical 
learning, which had its central point in the down- 
fall of Constantinople in 1453, exerted a favorable 
influence. It opened the literary treasures of 
Greece and Rome, provided a new culture for the 
mind, awakened dissatisfaction with the scholastic 
teaching of the church, and tended to emancipate 
thought from subjection to ecclesiastical author- 
ity. " ^ The taking of Constantinople did still 
more toward hastening the Reformation. Venice 
had controlled the commerce of the eastern Medi- 
terranean, but Turkish supremacy in those waters 
transferred that power to her rival, Genoa, on the 
other side of Italy; and from this latter center 
began the search for a western passage to the 
East Indies which led to the accidental discovery 
of America. 

Again, •" The revival of learning was so 

Ol*66k 

intimately related to the Reformation, 
classics 

and to the educational advancement dat- 
ing from that time, that it calls for consideration in 
some detail. It had its origin in Italy. . . . Eager 
scholars from England, France, and Germany sat 

* " Jlistory of Education," page 119. 



GREEK CLASSICS 217 

at the feet of Italian masters, in order afterward to 
bear beyond the Alps the precious seed of the new 
culture."^ However, this Greek culture, or new 
learning, was nothing more nor less than a revival 
of the study of Greek paganism. Notwithstanding 
that fact, a life and enthusiasm attended its study 
which drew students from the papal universities, 
and induced men to travel hundreds of miles for 
the sake of sitting at the feet of masters of the 
Greek classics. 

This was the attempted reform of the papacy 
made by classic literature. Its results can not but 
interest us. Painter further says: '' The revival of 
letters produced different results in different coun- 
tries. Everywhere it contributed to the emancipa- 
tion of the human mind, but in Italy it tended 
strongly to paganize its adherents." 

Bear in mind that the classics were attempting 
to reform the papacy. Here was the result in 
Italy. Italian schools undoubtedly needed reform- 
ing, for the words of Luther describing German 
schools are applicable to all papal institutions. Of 
these he said: "What have they been taught in 
the universities and convents, but to become block- 

2 Idem, page 12 1. 



2i8 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

heads ? A man has studied twenty , forty years, 
and has learned neither Latin nor German. But 
as much as reform was needed, Greek classics ' * in 
Italy tended strongly to paganize its adherents." 
We can not look for the classics, then, to Chris- 
tianize the Italian papists. 

But while "in Italy the new learning 

Greek in j^g^ame a minister of infidelity, in Ger- 

Qerman 

schools "^any [it became a minister] of religion." 

Why this difference } The work of Eras- 
mus, Luther, and Melancthon, as they introduced 
the study of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures into 
the German schools, will answer why. The Ital- 
ians studied the Greek classics for the thought^ 
and it paganized its adherents; the Germans stud- 
ied the Greek New Testament, translating it into 
the mother tongue, and it became one of the great- 
est helps in the spread of the Reformation of the 
sixteenth century. 

So much for the attempted reform by Greek 
classics. They played their part, but they could 
not overthrow the papacy; and why should we 
expect it when papal education was, in the first 
place, built upon those same classics and the phi- 
losophy of Greek writers t 



EFFECTS OF SCIENTIFIC ATTACK 219 

We now turn to the southern attack 

Papacy upon the papal system. This was also an 

educational attack. Already we have 
education -^ 

seen the Arab schools in Spain. Before 
the eleventh century Christian youth attended 
these schools, taking across the Pyrenees the 
science of the Moors. The papacy quailed before 
this attack, and in order to lessen its force, the 
sciences of the Arabs were adopted in the papal 
universities. This, as we have already seen, was 
done in medicine and mathematics. But again the 
form was retained without the life. France, be- 
cause of her jealousy of the Jewish physicians, 
through the influence of the University of Paris, 
banished every Jew from her borders. A scientific 
attack could not overthrow the papacy. 
Science However, the Moors went quietly on in 
and dis- their scientific discoveries; and when the 
covery of fall of Constantinople closed the eastern 
America j-Q^^e ^o the Indian Ocean, and Genoa 
wanted a western route, Spain was prepared to 
offer sailors the necessary charts and maps, com- 
passes, and other mariners' instruments. Her 
astronomical studies, celestial maps, and measure- 
ments of the degrees on the earth's surface encour- 



220 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

aged voyages both to the south and west, in direct 
contradiction to the theories of the patristic geogra- 
phies. When Columbus asked aid at the Spanish 
court to fit vessels for the tour across the Atlantic, 
it is strange to note that the wife of the king of 
Spain, who took from the Moors the keys of 
Granada, and drove the Arab and his learning out 
of Europe, was the same woman who pledged her 
jewels to this man, — a man, who, dependent upon 
Arabic scientific investigation, discovered a world 
where those same truths might be planted, and 
mature untrammeled by papal tyranny. I say 
this was more than a coincidence. The hand of 
God was in it; and, as D' Aubigne says: '*He pre- 
pares slowly and from afar that which he designs 
to accomplish. He has ages in which to work." 
Science While scientific knowledge could not 
and the overthrow the papacy, it had its part to 
Refor- play along with the classics. When 
*"* ®" men were spiritually dead, and the Word 
of God was hidden, minds were freed from papal 
thraldom by the work of the scientist and the 
classical student. Bear in mind, however, that 
the classics helped only as they offered the Scrip- 
tures; and science helped only as it opened men's 



REFORMATION AND EDUCATION 221 

minds to the reception of the truths of God's Word. 
Mighty forces were at work: the earth itself must 
be moved, and the fulcrum whereon rested the 
lever by which it was to be turned in its orbit was 
the throne of God, and the Word of the Eternal 
was the moving power. Men, weak in themselves 
but resolute in purpose, were the instruments in 
the hand of God to accomplish a task which ages 
had waited for, and principalities and powers in 
heavenly places had longed to see. 

The Reformation was not the work of a 
Reformat year, nor yet of one man, even in Ger- 
education "^^^Y- ^^ was the gradual work of a 

system of education, and that system 
was the same as had formerly been given to Israel, 
as had been exemplified and amplified in the life 
of Christ, and was at the time of the Reformation 
to be revealed, little by little, as men's minds, long 
darkened by oppression, were able to grasp it. 
Forerun- Agricola, known as the father of Ger- 
ners of the man humanism, was one of the earliest 

Refor- reformers, and his attitude as a teacher 

mation •, , . • j x- 

and his expressions concerning education 

prove the fact that the Reformation began in the 

educational institutions. This man was for a tima 



222 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

'*a pupil of Thomas a Kempis; he passed several 

years at the university of Louvain; subsequently 

he studied at Paris, and afterward in Italy," so 

that he was well acquainted with the institutions 

of the day. He became a teacher at Heidelberg. 

At the age of forty-one he began the study of 

Hebrew, in order to read the Hebrew Bible. 

He was urged to take charge of a school 

gr CO a s ^^ Antwerp, but refused, expressing his 
ideas of 
the school ^P^^i^^ ^* ^^e school m this advice sent 

to the authorities: ''It is necessary to 
exercise the greatest care in choosing a director 
for your school. Take neither a theologian nor 
a so-called rhetorician, who thinks he is able to 
speak of everything without understanding any- 
thing of eloquence. Such people make in school 
the same figure, according to the Greek proverb, 
that a dog does in a bath. It is necessary to seek 
a man resembling the phoenix of Achilles; that is, 
who knows how to teach, to speak, and to act at 
the same time. If you know such a man, get 
HIM AT ANY PRICE; for the matter involves the 
future of your children, whose tender youth re- 
ceives with the same susceptibility the impress of 
good and of bad examples." 



AGRICOLA AND EDUCATION 223 

His ideas concerning methods were as 
nizes er- clear as those expressed on the subject 
rors of of schools and the character of the 
papal teacher. He was evidently able to see 

things in advance of his age, and in the 
spirit of a seer can truthfully be classed with the 
forerunners of the Reformation. In another let- 
ter he writes: ''Whoever wishes to study with 
success must exercise himself in these three 
things: in getting clear views of a subject; in 
fixing in his memory what he has understood; 
and in producing something from his own re- 
sources. ' ' Each of the three things specified cuts 
directly across the methods employed in papal 
schools, and which were so necessary to the sta- 
bility of that hierarchy. This was the beginning 
of the Reformation as seen in education. 
Thought ^^^ more quotation from Agricola's let- 
versus ter emphasizes the thought that schools 
mere were then conducted where dry form 

^''™ and abstract memory work were giving 

place to thought, — original thought. *'It is nec- 
essary, " he says, ''to exercise one's self in com- 
position; when we have produced nothing, what 
we have learned remains dead. The knowledge 



224 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

that we acquire ought to be like seed sown in 

the earth, germinating and bearing fruit. "^ 

Reuchlin, one of Melancthon's teachers, 

Reuchlin recognized the best means of winning 
advises , , , . , rr>t 

<^PP<^^^^^s to the truth, and said: *'The 

the Bible ^^^^ ^ay to convert the Israehtes would 
be to establish two professors of the 
Hebrew language in each university, who should 
teach the theologians to read the Bible in Hebrew, 
and thus refute the Jewish doctors." The fact 
that such a position exposed Reuchlin to violent 
opposition from the monks and papal teachers 
shows that he rightly divined the remedy for 
papal oppression; and it is significant of an 
approaching reformation when he thus recom- 
mends that the Bible be placed in the universities 
for study by theologians. 

There is a rift in the clouds, and ere long the 
sun will appear. But ''men loved darkness 
rather than light." Why.? 

Erasmus, recognized by all as a reformer, 
Erasmus ,. , , i- . 

did his work by the publication of the 

New Testament in Greek. ' ' The work was un- 
dertaken in the interests of a purer Christianity." 

•^ " History of Education," pages 125-128. 



kEUCHLiN AND ERASMUS 22^ 

**It is my desire," he said, "to lead back that 
cold dispute about words called theology to its 
real fountain. Would to God that this work 
may bear as much fruit to Christianity as it has 
cost me toil and application." Here was a direct 
thrust at the study of dialectics in the universities. 
The meaningless disputes which constituted the 
course in theology was, by Erasmus, to be re- 
placed by the Hving word of God. The Reforma- 
tion drew nearer, and the papacy shuddered at 
the prospect. Gradually the Spirit was return- 
ing, and this is seen more and more as we take 
up the life of Luther. The highway had been 
cleared by such forerunners as have already been 
mentioned. 

P otes= ' ' ^^^ fundamental principles of Protes- 
tantism tantism are favorable to education," says 
fosters Painter.* ''With the Scriptures and his 
educat on conscience for guides, every man is ele- 
vated to the freedom and dignity of ordering his 
own religious life. The feeling of individual re- 
sponsibility is awakened, and the spirit of inquiry 
fostered. Intelligence becomes a necessity. T/ze 
Bible must be studied; teachers must be provided; 

* "History of Education," page 138. 
15 



226 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

schools must be established. Protestantism be- 
comes THE MOTHER OF POPULAR EDUCATION. " 

Again the same author says : * ' It [Christianity] 
does not withdraw man from the ordinary callings 
and relations of life; it makes him a steward of 
God in the world, and exalts his daily labors in 
the household, in the schoolroom, in the workshop, 
on the farm, into a divine service. The Protestant 
view restores nature, as a subject of investigation, 
to its rights. The whole circle of knowledge — 
whatever is elevating, whatever prepares for useful 
living — is held in honor. Primary and secondary 
schools are encouraged ; the best methods of 
instruction, based upon a study of man's nature 
and not upon the interests of the church, are 
sought out. Protestantism is a friend of univer- 
sal learning. ' ' One French scholar says : ' ' The 
Reformation contracted the obligation of placing 
everyone in a condition to save himself by reading 
and studying the Bible. Instruction became then 
the first of the duties of charity; and all who 
had charge of souls, from the father of a family 
to the sovereign of the state, were called upon 
... to favor popular education.^" 

^Idem^ pages 139, 140. 



LUTHER THE TEACHER 227 

It is no wonder, then, that much of 
n 

educator 



Luther an ^ , , . , , . . 

Luther s time and ambition was spent 



m the cause of education. *'The neces- 
sities of the Reformation gave Luther," says 
Painter, ' ' an intense interest in education. The 
schools of the time, already inadequate in number 
and defective in method, were crippled during the 
early stages of the Reformation by the excited and 
unsettled condition of society. A new generation 
was growing up without education. The establish- 
ment of schools became a necessary measure for 
the success and permanence of the Reformation. 
The appeal had been made to the Word of God, 
and it was necessary to teach the masses to read 
it. Preachers and teachers were needed for the 
promulgation and defense of the gospel. ... As 
early as 1524, Luther made an appeal of marvel- 
ous energy to the authorities of the German cities 
for the establishment of schools. If we consider 
its pioneer character, in connection with its state- 
ment of principles and admirable recommenda- 
tions, the address must be regarded the most im- 
portant educational treatise ever written."* God 
had trained him for his position. 

6 *' History of Education," pages 142, 143. 



228 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

Here are the words of the Reformer. 
I f Judge for yourselves if they should not 

schools voice the sentiment of every true Protes- 
tant to-day ! '* He wrote," says D' Au- 
bigne, ' ' to the councilors of all the cities of 
Germany, calling upon them to found Christian 
schools." ''Dear sirs, " said Luther, "we annu- 
ally expend so much money on arquebuses, roads, 
and dikes, why should we not spend a little to 
give one or two schoolmasters to our poor chil- 
dren.? God stands at the door and knocks; blessed 
are we if we open to him ! Now the Word of God 
abounds. O my dear Germans, buy, buy, while 
the market is open before your houses. The Word 
of God and His grace are like a shower that falls 
and passes away. It was among the Jews; but 
it passed away, and now they have it no longer. 
Paul carried it into Greece; but in that country 
also it has passed away, and the Turk reigns there 
now. It came to Rome and the Latin empire; but 
there also it has passed away, and Rome now has 
the pope. O Germans, do not expect to have this 
Word forever. The contempt that is shown to it 
will drive it away. For this reason let him who 
desires to possess it lay hold of it and keep it. 



LUTHER'S PLEA 229 

"Busy yourselves with the children; for 
many parents are like ostriches, they are hardened 
toward their Httle ones, and, satisfied with having 
laid the egg, they care nothing for it afterward. 
. . . The true wealth of a city, its safety, and its 
strength, is to have many learned, serious, worthy, 
VN^ell-educated citizens. And whom must we blame, 
because there are so few at present, except your 
magistrates who have allowed your youth to grow 
up like trees in a forest .'' " '^ 

D' Aubigne says truly: *'It was not the pub- 
lic worship alone that the Reformation was or- 
dained to change. The school was early placed 
beside the church, and these two great institutions, 
so powerful to regenerate the nations, were equally 
reanimated by it. // was by a close alliance with 
learning that the Reformation entered into the 
world; in the hour of its triumph it did not for- 
get its ally. '"^ Luther *'felt that to strengthen 
the Reformation it was requisite to work on 
THE young, to improve THE SCHOOLS, and to 
propagate throughout Christendom the knowledge 
necessary for a profound study of the Holy Scrip- 
tures. This was one of the results."^ 

' "History of the Reformation,'' book 10, chap. 9. 
8 Ibid. « Ibid. 



230 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

Painter, describing the educational work 
Schools q{ .^^ g^g^^ Reformer, says: ''With 
strengthen ,. , i • 

thechu h ^^*"^^' education was not an end in 

itself, but a means to more effective 
service in church and state. If people or rulers 
neglect the education of the young, they inflict 
an injury upon both the church and state; tkej/ 
become enemies of god and man; they advance 
the cause of Satan, and bring down upon them- 
selves the curse of heaven. This is the funda- 
mental thought that underlies all Luther's writings 
upon education." ^'^ 

Luther expresses his views briefly in 

these words: ''The common man does 
not appre= 
elated think that he is under obligation to 

God and the world to send his son to 

school. Everyone thinks that he is free to bring 

up his son as he pleases, no matter what becomes 

of God's word and command. Yea, even our 

rulers act as if they were exempt from the 

divine command. No one thinks that God has 

earnestly willed and commanded that children be 

brought up to his praise and work ■ — a thing that 

CAN not be done v^ithout SCHOOLS. On the 

1^ " History of Education," page 143. 



LUTHER'S EDUCATIONAL PLANS 231 

contrary, everyone hastens with his children 

after worldly gain.'' Luther's words ringing 

down the centuries must be echoed by all true 

Protestants to-day. Where are the men with 

the courage of educational reformers ? 

* ' Luther did not concern himself about 

the education of the clergy only, it was 
educational 
olans ^^^ desire that knowledge should not 

be confined to the church; he proposed 
extending it to the laity, who hitherto had been 
deprived of it. . . . He emancipated learning 
from the hands of the priests, who had monop- 
olized it, like those of Egypt in times of old, 
and put it within the reach of all. "^^ Luther 
grasped with wonderful clearness the real mean- 
ing of Christian education, and there is scarcely 
a phase of it which he has left untouched. 

*' If we survey," says Dittes, "the 

. , pedae^oe^y of Luther in all its extent, 
methods ... 

a model ^^^ imagine it fully realized in prac- 
tice, what a splendid picture the schools 
and education of the sixteenth century would 
present! We should have courses of study, text- 
books, teachers, methods, principles, and modes 

11 Idem, i2£)>Au]3igne, book 10, chap. 9. 



232 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

of discipline, schools and school regulations, that 

could serve as models for our own age." 

The Reformer writes : ' ^ Where would 

Luther's preachers, lawyers, and physicians come 

ideals of . .r ,^ ^^^ i 

. from if the hberal arts were not 
teachers 

taught ? From this source must they 
all come. This, I say, no one can ever suffi- 
ciently remunerate the industrious and pious 
teacher that faithfully educates. . . . Yet people 
shamefully despise this calling among us, as if it 
were nothing, and at the same time they pretend 
to be Christians! If I were obliged to leave off 
preaching and other duties, there is no ofBce I 
would rather have than that of school-teacher; for 
I know that this work is, with preaching, the most 
useful, greatest, and best; and I do not know 
which of the two is to be preferred. For it is 
difficult to make old dogs docile, and old rogues 
pious, yet that is what the ministry works at, 
and must work at in great part, in vain; but young 
trees, although some may break, are more easily 
bent and trained. Therefore, let it be one of f/ie 
highest virtues on earth faithfully to educate the 
children of others who neglect it themselves ^^^ 

13 Quoted in " History of Education," page 145. 



GERMANY AROUSED 233 

Germany was aroused. "In 1525 he 
Germany ^^^g commissioned by the Duke of Mans- 

^ . field to establish two schools in his 
schools 

native town, . . . one for the primary 
and the other for secondary instruction." They 
were not conducted after the manner of papal 
schools, differing only in the fact that the teacher 
was a Protestant. * < Both in the course of study 
and in the methods of instruction these schools 
become models after which many others were 
fashioned. ... In a few years the Protestant 
portion of Germany was suppHed with schools. 
They were still defective, . . . but, at the same 
time, they were greatly superior to any that had 
preceded them. Though no complete system of 
popular instruction was estabHshed, the founda- 
tion for it was laid. To this great result, Luther 
contributed more than any other man of his 
time; and this fact makes him the leading edu- 
cational reformer of the sixteenth century. '"^^ 

The changes wrought by Luther were 

not mere superficial, formal changes; 
promise , t^ r i- . 

but as the Reformation, as a religious 

movement, struck a deathblow to the papacy, 

1* " History of Education," page 149. 



234 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

viewed as an educational movement, it is found 
to have cut directly across the established methods 
of popular education. It meant a change in the 
courses^ a different idea of graduation, a change in 
text-books, in methods of teaching, methods of 
study, and character of the teachers. 

He was perhaps the first of the re- 
formers to recoe^nize the value of nature 
nature ° 

study study. He once said: '*We are at the 

dav/n of a new era; for we are begin- 
ning to recover the knowledge of the external 
world that we have lost since the fall of Adam. 
Erasmus is indifferent to it; he does not care 
to know how fruit is developed from the germ. 
But by the grace of God, we already recognize 
in the most delicate flower the wonders of divine 
goodness and the omnipotence of God. We see 
in His creatures the power of His word. He com- 
manded, and the thing stood fast. See that force 
display itself in the stone of a peach. It is very 
hard, and the germ that it incloses is very tender; 
but, when the moment has come, the stone must 
open to let out the young plant that God calls into 
life." ^^ It may at first seem strange that the bold, 
brave man who aroused the world by his theses 

'^^ Idem, page 135. 



MELANCTHON LUTHER'S COMPANION 235 

nailed to the church door, should have a character 
to which the gentleness of nature made such a 
strong appeal. But Luther was a true preacher 
in that he was a teacher. What wonder that his 
work was enduring ! It stands close beside the 
lifework. of his Master, Jesus, — the Teacher sent 
of God. 

Before carrying: the work of Luther fur- 
thon ther, it is necessary to introduce a new 

Luther's character, born, it would seem, at a 
companion moment when his special mental quali- 
ties were most needed and fitted by 
tion 

heaven to stand by Luther's side as an 
aid and as a comfort in the mighty storm through 
which he must pass. I refer to Melancthon; God 
chose him as a teacher, and imparted to him, in a 
wonderful degree, that gift of the Spirit. A few 
extracts from D'Aubigne will show clearly how he 
was guided into the paths of the Reformation, 
there to become one of the greatest workers for 
that cause. 

He was born in 1497; hence, when Luther 
began his work in 15 17, Melancthon was a youth 
of twenty. * ' He was remarkable for the excel- 
lence of his understanding, and his facility in learn- 



236 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

ing and explaining what he had learnt." " Me- 
lancthon at twelve years of age went to the 
University of Heidelberg, . . . and took his 
bachelor's degree at fourteen." ^'In 15 12, Reuch- 
lin [the reformer referred to on a previous page] 
invited him to Tubingen. . . . The Hoty Scrip- 
tures especially engaged his attention. . . . Re- 
jecting the empty systems of the schoolmen, he 
adhered to the plain word of the gospel." ^^ 

Erasmus wrote: *'I entertain the most distin- 
guished and splendid expectations of Melancthon. 
God grant that this young man may long survive 
us. He will entirely eclipse Erasmus." 

*'In 1 5 14 he was made doctor of phi- 
losophy, and then began to teach. He 
was seventeen years old. The grace and 
charm that he imparted to his lessons formed the 
most striking contrast to the tasteless method 
which the doctors, and above all, the monks, 
had pursued till then." 

Frederick applied to Erasmus and Reuch- 
rielancthon . r , • • 

Im for an mstructor for the University 
goes to ^ 

Wittem= of Wittemberg. Melancthon was recom- 
berg mended. Reaching the university, he 

did not make the most favorable impression on 

1^ " History of the Reformation," book 4, chap. 3. 



LUTHER AND MELANCTHON 237 

Luther and other professors, ' * when they saw his 
youth, his shyness, and diffident manners." After 
his opening address, however, Luther and others 
became his ardent admirers. Luther wrote: ''I 
ask for no other Greek master. But I fear that 
his dehcate frame will be unable to support our 
mode of living, and that we shall be unable to 
keep him long on account of the smallness of his 
salary." 

The spirit of Christianity and of Christian educa- 
tion had drawn two souls together, and the success 
of the work from this time on depended largely 
upon this union. Says D'Aubigne: ''Melancthon 
was able to respond to Luther's affection. He 
soon found in him a kindness of disposition, a 
strength of mind, a courage, a discretion, that he 
had never found till then in any man. . . . We 
can not too much admire the goodness and wisdom 
of God in bringing together two men so differ- 
ent, and yet so necessary to one another. Luther 
possessed warmth, vigor, and strength; Melancthon 
clearness, discretion, and mildness. Luther gave 
energy to Melancthon; Melancthon moderated 
Luther. They were like substances in a state of 
positive and negative electricity, which mutually 



238 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

act upon each other. If Luther had been without 
Melancthon, perhaps the torrent would have over- 
flowed its banks; Melancthon, when Luther was 
taken from him by death, hesitated, and gave way, 
even where he should not have yielded." 

Should you question why I thus dwell upon the 
life and character of Melancthon, I reply, Because 
from this union of two souls flowed the great edu- 
cational reform of the sixteenth century. The two 
did what neither could have done alone; and the 
study of their lives alone reveals the secret of suc- 
cess in Christian education to-day. 

It was a notable day to Wittemberg 
thon revo- when Melancthon arrived. * * The bar- 
lutionizes renness that scholasticism had cast over 
Wittem- education was at an end. A nev^ man- 

^""^ NER OF TEACHING AND OF STUDYING 

BEGAN WITH Melancthon. * Thanks to him, ' 
says an illustrious German historian, * Wittem- 
berg became the school of the nation.' " 

' ' The zeal of the teachers [ Luther 

^P and Melancthon] was soon communi- 

educatlon ^ -,- • -, x 1 • i 1 

- - cated to the disciples. It was decided 

to reform the method of instruction. 

With the electors' consent, certain courses that 



PAPAL EDUCATION DROPPED 239 

POSSESSED MERELY SCHOLASTIC IMPORTANCE WERE 

suppressed; and at the same time the study of 
the classics received a fresh impulse. [Remem- 
ber, however, that this study of the classics was 
the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures.] The school 

AT WiTTEMBERG V^AS TRANSFORMED, AND THE CON- 
TRAST WITH OTHER UNIVERSITIES BECAME DAILY 
MORE STRIKING." ^^ 

The results of these changes were no 
^®" less marvelous than the changes them- 

. selves. The author last quoted says: 

Wittemberg "flourished daily more and 
more, and was eclipsing all the other schools. A 
crowd of students flocked thither from all parts 
of Germany to hear this extraordinary man, whose 
teaching appeared to open a new era in religion 
and learning. These youths, who came from 
every province, halted as soon as they discovered 
the steeples of Wittemberg in the distance; they 
raised their hands to heaven, and praised God for 
having caused the light of truth to shine forth 
from this city, as from Zion in times of old, and 
whence it spread even to the most distant coun- 
tries. A Hfe and activity, till then unknown, 
animated the university." 

^■^ " History of the Reformation," book 4, chap. 3. 



240 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

Such a school did not call together a class of 
students careless in habit and listless in study; 
for the fare, as before noted, was meager, and 
there was no great outward display. Those who 
attended came seeking for truth; and as their 
souls were filled with spiritual meat, they returned 
to their homes, ' ' even to the most distant coun- 
tries," to spread the truths of Christian educa- 
tion. Luther himself wrote: ''Our students here 
are as busy as ants." Two thousand students 
from all parts of Europe thronged the lecture 
room of Melancthon." 

Melanc° ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ work of those two animat- 
thon's ing spirits at Wittemberg can not be 
view of measured by any earthly standard. 
education Melancthon said: ''I apply myself solely 
to one thing, the defense of letters. By our ex- 
ample we must excite youth to the admiration of 
learning, and induce them to love it for its own 
sake, and not for the advantage that they may 
derive from it. The destruction of learning brings 
with it the ruin of everything that is good, — 
religion, morals, and all things human and divine. 
The better a man is, the greater his ardor in the 
preservation of learning; for he knows that, of 



TEXT-BOOKS PREPARED 24I 

all plagues, ignorance is the most pernicious." 
**To neglect the young in our schools is just 
like taking the spring out of the year. They, 
indeed, take away the spring from the year who 
permit the schools to dechne, because religion 

CAN NOT BE MAINTAINED WITHOUT THEM." 

Melanc- Luther had stated that a reform in 
thon pre= methods and courses was necessary. 
pared text- Melancthon had assisted in that work. 
^^ ^ He did still more. Breaking away as 

they did from the educational system of the uni- 
versities of the world, and basing instruction upon 
the Word of God, it became necessary to have 
new text-books. Melancthon applied himself with 
great diligence to this duty. He was an arduous 
student, often arising at three in the morning, and 
many of his works were written between that hour 
and the dawn. Besides his Greek and Latin 
grammars he is the author of works on logic, 
rhetoric, physics, and ethics. ' ' These works, 
written in a clear and scientific form, soon became 
popular, and some of them held their place in the 
schools for more than a hundred years. ' ' 

The Study of Theology had been degraded 

into the pursuit of subtle arguments and idle con- 
16 



242 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

troversies. Melancthon wrote a work on dogmatic 
theology, publishing it in 1521. Of this work, 
Luther wrote : * ' Whoever wishes to become a 
theologian now enjoys great a4vantages; for, first 
of all, he has the Bibles which is so clear that he 
can read it without difficulty. Then let him read 
in addition the Loci Communes of Melancthon. 
... If he has these two things, he is a theologian 
from whom neither the devil nor heretics shall be 
able to take away anything." 

Melancthon's life was not devoted alone 

repara- ^^ ^j^^ education of such students as 
tory 
schools could attend Wittemberg, nor were his 

changes of the educational system appli- 
cable only to the higher schools and universities. 
Stump says: '* Amid all the distractions and anxie- 
ties of this period, Melancthon steadily directed 
his efforts to the advancement of education and 
the building up of good Christian schools. During 
a period covering many years, he found time, in 
spite of his numerous other engagements, to give 
elementary instruction to a number of young men 
who lived vv^ith him in his own house. He did this 
on account of the lamentable lack of suitable 
PREPARATORY SCHOOLS. He lost no Opportunity, 



PREPARATORY SCHOOLS 243 

however, to provide for this lack, whenever he 
found it possible to do so. 

''In the spring of 1525, with Luther's help, he 
reorganized the schools of Eisleben and Magde- 
burg. He went to Nuremberg, and assisted in the 
estabhshment of a gymnasium [high school] in that 
city; and in the following spring he returned to 
Nuremberg, and formally opened the school. He 
delivered an address in Latin, in which he dwelt 
upon the importance of education, and the credit 
which the movers in this enterprise deserved. He 
declared that . . . ' the cause of true education is 
the cause of God. ' " ^^ 

Both church schools and higher schools, those 

offering instruction for students preparing for the 

universities, were organized by Melancthon. 

This work was not allowed to proceed 
Changes 

were bit- without some bitter attacks from the 
terly schoolmen and representatives of papal 

opposed education. For illustration of this fact, 
we have the words of D' Aubigne: ''The schools, 
which for five centuries past had domineered over 
Christendom, far from giving way at the first blow 
of the Reformer [Luther], rose up haughtily to 
crush the man who dared pour out upon them the 

18 " Life of Melancthon," page 81. 



244 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

flood of his contempt." ''Doctor Eck, the cele- 
brated professor of Ingolstadt, . . . was a doctor 
of the schools and not of the Bible; well versed in 
the scholastic writings, but not in the Word of God. 
. . . Eck represented the schoolmen." **Eck 
was a far more formidable adversary than Tetzel 
[the vender of indulgences], Prierio, or Hochstra- 
ten; the more his work surpassed theirs in learning 
and in subtlety, the more dangerous it was. " *^ 
Thus Luther's most bitter enemies were those who 
had once been his warm friends, and those who 
offered the strongest opposition to his work were 
the teachers in the universities of Germany. Lu- 
ther was sometimes almost overcome in spirit by 
the ingratitude shown, and of Doctor Eck he once 
wrote: ''If I did not know Satan's thoughts, I 
should be astonished at the fury which has led this 
man to break off so sweet and so new a friend- 
ship, and that, too, without warning me, without 
writing to me, without saying a single Vv^ord." 

It was in order to meet the opposition 

, . offered by the schoolmen, and to put the 
ony school 
plan Reformation on a firm basis, that Luther 

and Melancthon formulated the Saxony 

school plan, and reorganized the German schools. 

1* "History of the Reformation," book 3, chap, 9. 



SAXONY SCHOOL PLAN 245 

Stump says: "In the year 1527, Melancthon 
took part with Luther in the visitation of the 
schools and churches of Saxony. It was high time 
for such a step. Affairs were in a wretched con- 
dition. In many places no religious instruction 
was given at all, because there were either no pas- 
tors and teachers stationed there, or those who 
were stationed there were grossly ignorant them- 
selves. The greatest disorder imaginable reigned 
nearly everywhere. . . . The financial condition 
of many of the churches was equally bad. ... It 
was the object of the visitation to bring order out 
of this chaos. Melancthon was charged with mak- 
ing a beginning in Thuringia. The spiritual dis- 
tress which he discovered rent his heart, and he 
often went aside, and wept over what he saw." 
*'In 1528 Melancthon drew up the 'Saxony school 
plan, ' which served as the basis of organization for 
many schools throughout Germany." 

_ „ According^ to this plan, teachers were to 

Reforms ^ . . 

advocated ^-^oid ' ' burdening the children with a 

by this multiplicity of studies that were not only 

plan unfruitful, but even hurtful." Again, 

' ' The teacher should not burden the children with 

too many books," and '*it is necessary that the 



246 AN EDUCATIONAL REFORM 

children be divided into classes." ** Three classes, 
or grades, are recommended," and the subjects 
taught should be adapted to the age and condition 
of the pupil. Thus, avoid too many studies for 
children and youth; do not put too many books 
into their hands; group them according to their 
ability. This "plan" seems to resist the cram- 
ming system so universally followed to-day almost 
as vigorously as it opposed the papal schools of 
the sixteenth century. 

Results if ^ great work was set on foot, — a revo- 
Luther's lution which was to affect the ages 
plans which followed. In the brief space of 

" ' ® one man's life, plans were laid, espe- 
cially in the educational zvorkj which, if carried 
out by his successors, would have placed Germany 
in a position to rule the world. Instead of return- 
ing to the pit from which she had been dug, her 
schools and universities might have been models 
worthy of imitation throughout Europe and in 
America. Luther died, and Melancthon, his co- 
laborer, was unable to carry forward the work. 
Theologians, pastors, ministers, into whose hands 
the work of the Reformation rightfully fell, instead 
of multiplying Christian schools, and carrying to 



PROTESTANTISM AND REPUBLICANISM 24; 

perfection the methods of instruction introduced 
by Luther and Melancthon, passed by the greatest 
work of the age, and by internal strifes and theo- 
logical disputes lost the hard-won battle. The 
seeds of truth had been sown in republicanism 
and Protestantism, and these two institutions 
should have been held in Germany. Education — 
Christian education — alone could hold them 
there. This was neglected; and as lost children, 
the two went hand in hand to the Netherlands, to 
England, and finally to America, in search of a 
fostering mother, — a pure system of education. 
The spirit and life so manifest in the teaching of 
the great Reformers, passed on, leaving Europe 
with the form. A house empty, swept, and gar- 
nished does not long so remain. The form was 
occupied by the spirit of the papacy, and Europe 
relapsed into a position from which she can be 
reclaimed only by a renewal of the plans of the 
sixteenth-century Reformers — a system of Chris- 
tian EDUCATION. 



XIII 

THE REACTION AFTER THE EDUCA- 
TIONAL REFORMATION 

„„^ The most momentous event of the 

Wide= 

spread world's history, excepting alone the 
effects of birth of the Redeemer, was the Refor- 
theRefor- nation of the sixteenth century. Great 
religious movements have occurred be- 
fore and since, but they are eclipsed by the bril- 
liancy and far-reaching results of this one. More 
men have been reached, more lives revolutionized, 
than by the combined forces of all changes in civil 
and domestic circles since that time. The fact is, 
that when the causes of political changes in the 
modern world are considered, it must be acknowl- 
edged by every candid thinker that these changes 
are due in one way or another to the attitude 
assumed by the people concerned toward that one 
Reformation which was set in motion by the Wit- 
temberg monk. Christ had been forgotten, and 
He came before the world again in the days of 

Luther. • 

248 



SPREAD OF EDUCATION 249 

A few quotations from Ranke show how far the 
Reformation extended in the brie-f space of forty 
years; and since we are deahng with the causes 
of this rapid spread, it is gratifying to see that this 
author gives in the most natural way due credit to 
t'he influence of th*e schools. Two things, then, 
should be noticed in reading these selections; first, 
the extent of territory covered by Protestant princi- 
ples; second, the part played by schools and teach- 
ers in the conversion of nations. It is about the 
year 1563. 

* * In the Scandinavian reabns they [the Prot- 
estants] had established themselves the more im- 
pregnably, because there their introduction was 
coincident with the establishment of new dynas- 
ties, and the remodehng of all political institutions. 
From the very first they were hailed with joy, 
as though there was in their nature a primitive 
affinity to the national feelings. " 

'*In the year 1552, the last representatives of 
Catholicism in Iceland succumbed." 

* ' On the southern shores, too, of the Baltic 
Lutheranism had achieved complete predomi- 
nance, at least among the population of German 
tongue." 



250 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

In Poland it was said, * * A Polish nobleman is 
not subject to the king; is he to be so to the 
pope?" 

In Hungary, * * Ferdinand I could never force 
the diet to any resolutions unfavorable to Protes- 
tantism." 

' ' Protestantism not only reigned paramount in 
northern Germany, where it had originated, and 
in those districts of upper Germany where it had 
always maintained itself, but its grasp had been 
extended much more widely in every direction." 

'* In Wurzburg and Bamberg by far the greater 
part of the nobility and the episcopal functionaries, 
the magistrates and the burghers of the towns, at 
least the majority of them, and the bulk of the 
rural population, had passed over to the reforming 
party." 

In Bavaria '*the great majority of the nobility 
had adopted the Protestant doctrine, and a con- 
siderable portion of the towns was decidedly 
inclined to it. " 

' * Far more than this, however, had been done 
in Austria. The nobility of that country studied 
in Wittemberg; all the colleges of the land were 
filled with Protestants,'' 



EDUCATIONAL CONQUESTS 25 1 

We are not surprised, therefore, to read that 
' ' it was said to be ascertained that not more, per- 
haps, than the thirtieth part of the population 
remained Cathohc: sUp by step, a national con- 
stitution unfolded itself, for^ned upon the princi- 
ples of Protestantisin.'' '* In the Rauris, and the 
Gastein, in St. Veit, Tamswegy and Radstadt, 
the inhabitants loudly demanded the sacramental 
cup, and this being refused [in order to compel 
them to remain Catholic], they ceased altogether 
to attend the sacrament. They withheld their 
children, too, from the [Catholic] schools.'' 

' ' The Rhenish nobility had early embraced 
Protestantism. ... In all the towns there existed 
already a Protestant party. . . . The inhabitants 
of Maniz, too, did not hesitate to send their 
children to Protestant schools. In short, from 
west to east, and from north to south, through- 
out all Germany, Protestantism had unquestionably 
the preponderance. ' ' 

' ' The Protestant notions extended their 

. . vivifying enere^ies to the most remote 

plished by 

education ^"^^ most forgotten corners of Europe. 

What an immense domain had they 

conquered within the space of forty years! From 



2 52 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

Iceland to the Pyrenees, from Finland to the 
heights of the Italian Alps. Even beyond the lat- 
ter mountains opinions analogous had once, as we 
are aware, prevailed. Protestantism embraced the 
whole range of the Lathi church. It had laid 
hold of a vast majority of the higher classes, and 
of the minds that took part in public life; whole 
nations clung to it with enthusiasm, and states had 
been remodeled by it. This is the more deserving 
of our wonder, inasmuch as Protestantism was by 
no means a mere antithesis, a negation of the 
papacy, or an emancipation from its rule; it was in 
the highest degree positive, a renovation of Chris- 
tian notions and principles, that sway human life 
even to the profoundest mysteries of the soul." * 
Notice again that this was due to the educational 
ideas propagated by Protestants, and the reason 
why the papacy was so fast losing its foothold was 
because it had not yet learned that this Reforma- 
tion, which began in schools, and was carried for- 
ward by Christian schools, must be defeated in 
schools and by teachers. For forty years Protes- 
tants had the right of way in education, and the 
results were stupendous. 

1 "History of the Popes," Kelley's trans., book 5, pages 132-135 . 



A WORK OF FORTY YEARS 253 

Ranke says: ''Protestant opinions had 
Protestant ■ ^ 

schools triumphed in the universities and educa- 

winning tional establishments. Those old cham- 
every- pions of CathoUcism [the teachers] who 
^ ^""^ had withstood Luther were dead, or in 
advanced years: young men capable of supplying 
their places had not yet arisen. Twenty years had 
elapsed in Vienna since a single student of the 
university had taken priest's orders. Even in 
Ingoldstadt, pre-eminently Catholic as it was, no 
competent candidates of the faculty of theology 
presented themselves to fill the places that had 
hitherto been ahvays occupied by ecclesiastics. 
The city of Cologne founded an endowed school; 
but when all the arrangements for it had been 
made, it was found that the regent was a Protes- 
tant. Cardinal Otto Truchess established a new 
university in his city of Dilligen, with the express 
design of resisting the progress of Protestantism. 
The credit of this institution was maintained for 
some years by a few distinguished Spanish theolo- 
gians; but as soon as these left it, not a single 

SCHOLAR COULD BE FOUND IN ALL GERMANY TO SUC- 
CEED TO THEIR PLACES, and even these were like- 
wise filled with Protestants. About this period 



254 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

THE TEACHERS IN GERMANY WERE ALL, almost 

without exception, Protestants. The whole body 

OF THE RISING GENERATION SAT AT THEIR FEET, 

and imbibed a hatred of the pope with the first 

rudiments of learning."^ 

Stress is not laid on their hatred of the 
Success of 

Reforma- P^P^> ^^^ ^^ *^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ t^® rising 
tlon due generation sat at the feet of Protestant 
to schools teachers throughout Germany; that par- 
ents withheld their children from the papal school, 
even though it might be necessary in so doing to 
send them from home to be educated; and finally, 
that the papacy was dying, and Protestantism was 
spreading through the work of the schools. Would 
that those schools might have retained their pris- 
tine purity and simpHcity. No power on earth 
could then have retarded the progress of Protes- 
tantism, and instead of only modifying the history 
of many countries, it would eventually have swept 
from the earth all forms of tyranny, both civil and 
religious, for it breathed the freedom of the gospel, 
and no oppression could stand before it. It is as 
impossible to withstand pure Christian education 
as it is to withstand Christ, whose power is its 
life and strength. 

^ Idem, page 134. 



EDUCATION BY FAITH 255 

_ It is with a pans: that one is forced to 

Protes- ^ ^ 

tants trace in this movement that oft-repeated 

failed to chapter in the history of mankind. As 

recognize ^j^g leader of Israel was allowed to view 

its 

the promised land from the top of Pis- 
strength '^ . 

gah, but must there lay aside his armor 

and sleep the sleep of death because of a depar- 
ture from right principles, so Protestantism, 
through its schools, looked across Jordan, but 
failed to maintain the principle of faith which 
could at the crucial moment command the waters 
to part. 

One reason for the decHne is thus stated 

by Painter: '*In their efforts to give 
by faith ^ ^ 

lQg|. Christian doctrine a scientific form [that 

is, to formulate it], they lost its spirit. 
Losing its early freedom and life, Protes- 
tantism degenerated in a large measure into what 
has been called ' dead orthodoxy. ' . . . Chris- 
tian life counted for little, and the Protestant 
world broke up into opposing factions. Says 
Kurtz, who is disposed to apologize for this period 
as far as possible: * Like medieval scholasticism, in 
its concern for logic, theology almost lost vitality. 
Orthodoxy degenerated into orthodoxism; exter- 



256 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

nally^ not only discerning essential diversities, but 
disregarding the broad basis of a common faith, 
and running into odious and unrestrained contro- 
versy; internally^ holding to the form of pure doc- 
trine, but neglecting cordially to embrace it and to 
live consistently with it.' " ^ 

Scholasti- -^^^ narrow the line between truth and 
cism killed error ! How easy for those who had 
Protestant been given to eat of the tree of life to 
sciioo s ^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^£ knowledge of good 

and evil ! What a pity that Protestant educators 
could not remain true to their trust! When on 
the eve of success, they turned to the old paths, 
and * ' called into existence a dialectic scholasticism 
which was in no way inferior to that of the most 
flourishing period of the Middle Ages."* Papal 
principles are papal, whether advocated by Catho- 
lics or Protestants; having left the fountain of the 
pure waters of faith, they turned to the only other 
accessible source of knowledge — the pagan world. 
That system of education introduced by Luther 
and Melancthon, founded upon the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and through them viewing the sciences, 
mathematics, and literature, using the latter only 

3 '* History of Education," page 155. ^ Idem. 



PROTESTANT SCHOOLS KILLED 25; 

as a means of illustrating God's Word, was replaced 

by the scholasticism of the Middle Ages, One 

involuntarily asks, * ' How many times, O Israel, 

wilt thou return into Egypt?" 

This decline is described in the follow- 

orm 00 .^ quotations taken from Painter, and 
the place 
of life *^^y need no comment: ''During the 

period extending from the middle of the 
sixteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, three leading tendencies are apparent in 
education. These may be characterized as the 
theological, the humanistic, and the practical. . . . 
A large share of the intellectual strength of the 
age was turned to theology. Every phase of reli- 
gious truth, particularly in its doctrinal and specu- 
lative aspects, v/as brought under investigation. 
Theology was elevated to a science, and doctrinal 
systems were developed with logical precision, and 
extended to trifling subtilities.'' ^ 

In the figure of the Bible they strained for gnats, 
meanwhile swallowing the camel. The life was 
thus lost in the pulpit and in the theological 
schools. It was again the * ' teaching for doctrines 
the commandments of men." 

5 '♦History of Education," pages 154, 155. 
17 



258 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

Further Painter further says: "The schools, 
return to which stand in close relation to reli- 
papal gion, were naturally influenced in a 

^® ^ ® large measure by the theological ten- 
dencies of the age. Theological interests imposed 
upon the schools a narrow range of subjects, a 
7necha7iical method of instruction^ and a cruel 
discipline. The principle of authority, exacting 
a blind submission of the pupil, prevailed in the 
schools of every grade. The young were regarded 
not as tender plants to be carefully nurtured and 
developed, but as untamed animals to be repressed 
or broken." ^ 

Notice the creeping in of those very character- 
istics of papal education so often referred to here- 
tofore: I, narrow range of subjects; 2, mechanical 
instruction, — memory work devoid of understand- 
ing; 3, arbitrary government, as seen in the matter 
of discipline. To this we must add that which is 
the natural accompaniment in papal instruction — 
the teaching of Latin. Says Painter, quoting 
Dittes: ***In the higher institutions, and even 
in the wretched town schools, Latin was the 
Moloch to which countless minds fell an offering 

6 Idem, 



CRAMMING SYSTEM 259 

in return for the blessing granted to a few. A 
dead knowledge of words took the place of a 
living knowledge of things. Latin schoolbooks 
supplanted the book of nature, the book of life, 
the book of mankind. And in the popular schools 
youthful minds were tortured over the spelHng 
book and catechism. The method of teaching 
was almost everywhere, in the primary as well as 
in the higher schools, a mechanical and compul- 
sory drill in unintelligible formulas. The pupils 
were obliged to learn, but they were not educated 
to see and hear, to think and prove, and were 
not led to a true independence and personal per- 
fection. The teachers found their function 
IN teaching the prescribed text, not in har- 
moniously developing the young human being 
according to the laws of nature — a process, 
moreover, that lay under the ban of ecclesiastical 
orthodoxy.' " ^ 

Cramming That there was a cramming process 
system followed equal to any twentieth-century 
and mem- school, is evident. ' ' The discipline an- 
ory work g^gj-g^j |-q j-j^q content and spirit of the 
instruction. . . . The principle was to tame the 

'^ Idem, page 156. 



26o EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

pupils, not to educate them. They were to hold 
themselves motionless, that the school exercises 
might not be disturbed. What took place in their 
minds, and how their several characters were con- 
stituted, the school pedants did not understand 
and appreciate." 

Sturm's ^^ order to appreciate the rapidity 
school a with which the relapse took place from 
cotnpro- the educational system introduced by 
"* ®* Luther to the medieval principles and 

methods, our attention is directed to the school 
of John Sturm. This man, ** regarded as the 
greatest educator that the Reformed Church pro- 
duced during this period," died in 1589, less than 
seventy years after the Diet of Worms; hence his 
work fell within the half century following those 
forty years of unusual prosperity for Protestantism 
which has already been noticed. His work is con- 
temporary with the first Jesuit school of Germany. 
The decline is visible in every feature of his work. 
John Sturm presided for forty years over the 
gymnasium of Strasburg, and his boast was that 
his institution * ' reproduced the best periods of 
Athens and Rome; and, in fact, he succeeded in 
giving to his adopted city the name of New 



STURM'S SCHOOL 261 

Athens." Sturm's school stood as a halfway 
mark between the Christian schools and the 
purely papal schools of the Jesuits, but since 
compromise always places a person or institution 
on the side of wrong, in weighing the worth of 
his school the balances necessarily tip in favor 
of the papacy. 

Course That his was a mixture of the me- 

of study dieval classical literature with a thin slice 
in Sturm's of Scripture sandwiched in for effect, is 
school ggg,j^ -j^ ^YiQ course of study as outlined 
by Painter. The school was divided into ten 
classes covering ten years, but only so much is 
given as is necessary to show the character of the 
studies: "Tenth class — The alphabet, reading, 
writing, Latin declensions and conjugations, Ger- 
man or Latin catechism." ''Ninth class — Latin 
declensions and conjugations continued. Memo- 
rizing of Latin words." The eighth and the sev- 
enth classes are about the same. In the sixth, 
Greek is begun. The fifth class is as follows: 
' ' Study of words, . . . versification, mythology, 
Cicero, and Virgil's eclogues, Greek vocabulary. 
. . . On Saturday and Sunday, one of Paul's epis- 
tles."^ The remaining four classes have much 

*'• History of Education," page 160. 



262 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

'* learning by heart," rhetoric, Paul's epistles, ora- 
tions of Demosthenes, the Iliad of Odyssey; 
memorizing and recitation of the Epistle to the 
Romans, dialectics, and rhetoric continued; Virgil, 
Horace, Homer, Thucidides, Sallust, weekly dra- 
matic entertainments, and again a reading of Paul's 
epistles. 

Such a course of instruction was well fitted to 
bridge the gulf between the papacy and Protestant- 
ism. It was imbibing perhaps unconsciously the 
spirit of the new papal schools. * * History, mathe- 
matics, natural science, and the mother tongue are 
ignored. A great gap is left between the gymna- 
sium and life — a gap that could not be filled 
even by the university. In aiming to reproduce 
Greece and Rome in the midst of modern Chris- 
tian civilization, Sturm's scheme involves a vast 
anachronism.''^ 

The Strasburg gymnasium at one time 

n uence numbered several thousand pupils rep- 
of Sturm's . ^ , .. i / ^ \ 

school resentmg Denmark, Poland, Portugal, 

France, and England. ** Sturm's influ- 
ence extended to England, and thence to America.'' 
An English writer says: **No one who is ac- 

^ Idem, page 162. 



MODERN SCHOOLS FOLLOW STURM 263 

quainted with the education given at our principal 
classical schools, Eaton, Winchester, and West- 
minster, forty years ago, can fail to see that their 
curriculum was framed in a great degree on 
Sturm's model. "^'^ And yet it is acknowledged 
that his "scheme involves a vast anachronism.'' 
Modern ^^ show that Sturm is the father of 
schaols much of the instruction now given in 
follow our high schools and universities, Ro- 
senkranz says: "John Sturm, of 
Strasburg, long before Comenius, had laid the 
foundation of what has become the traditional 
course of instruction and methods of study in 
the classical schools for preparation for college.'' " 
Reaction ^^^ decline in the matter of instruc- 
as seen tion was accompanied by a corre- 
in dis- sponding retrogression in the morals of 
^^^ "® university students. Painter tells us 
that "the state of morals at the universities of 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was very 
low. Idleness, drunkenness, disorder, and licen- 
tiousness prevailed in an unparalleled degree. 
The practice of hazing was universal, and new 
students were subjected to shocking indignities." 

^^ Idem, page 163, ^^ " Philosophy of Education," page 267, 



264 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

Duke Albrecht, of the university of Jena, wrote 
in 1624: "* Customs before unheard of, inexcus- 
able, unreasonable, and wholly barbarian, have 
come into existence.'" Then he speaks of the 
insulting names, the expensive suppers, and the 
carousing of the students, until * ^ * parents in dis- 
tant places either determine not to send their 
children to this university, ... or to take them 
away again. ' " ^^ 

Protestantism lost much because she ceased 
TO EDUCATE HER CHILDREN. Had Protestantism 
remained true to her first principles of education, 
her overthrow would have been impossible. She 
paved the way for her own fall by departing 
gradually from the gospel, and by leaning more 
and more toward the classics and scholasticism. 

It was this decline on her own part, 
Ignatius 

Loyola caused by the insidious workings of the 
solves Jesuits, which made possible the great 
the victories of this order in later years. 

It was when Rome saw her youth slip- 
ping from her hands into the Protestant schools, 
and as a result, a few years later, found whole 
nations refusing obedience, and building for them- 
selves new forms of government, that, in her 

*2 " History of Education," pages 165, 166. 



LOYOLA SOLVES THE PROBLEM 265 

distress, she grasped the offer made by Loyola. 
And while the power he represented in its organ- 
ization, placed itself above the pope, becoming, 
as it were, a papacy of the papacy^ still she 
accepted his offer, and the counter educational 
move began. The Jesuits organized to com- 
bat REFORMATION IN EDUCATIONAL LINES. In 

speaking of the Jesuits, Painter says: ''This 
order, established by Ignatius Loyola [in 1534], 
found its special mission in combating the Ref- 
ormation. As the most effective means of arrest- 
ing the progress of Protestantism, it aimed at 
controlling education, particularly among the 
wealthy and the noble. In rivalry with the 
schools of Protestant countries, it developed an 
immense educational activity, and earned for its 
schools a great reputation." Again, the same 
writer says: ''More than any other agency it 
stayed the progress of the Reformation, and it 
even succeeded in winning back territory already 
conquered by Protestantism. Although employ- 
ing the pulpit and the confessional, it worked 
chiefly through its schools^ of which it established 
and controlled large numbers. Education in all 
CathoHc countries gradually passed into its hands." 



266 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

In order to understand the reason for 

the success of the Jesuits as teachers it 
schools 

is necessary to glance at the plan of 

studies prepared in 1588 from a draft made by 
Loyola himself. <* Every member of the order," 
says Painter, ''became a competent and practical 
teacher. He received a thorough course in the 
ancient classics, philosophy, and theology. During 
the progress of his later studies he was required 
to teach." Jesuit schools contained two courses, 
the lower corresponding very closely to the work 
of Sturm. Rosenkranz gives an excellent descrip- 
tion of the educational system of the Jesuits. He 
says : — 

' ' In instruction they developed so exact 

, ^ , a mechanism that they gained the repu- 
Instruction ^ ^ ^ 

tation of having model school regula- 
tions, and even Protestants sent their children 
to them. From the close of the sixteenth cen- 
tury to the present time they have based their 
teaching upon the Ratio et institutio studiorum 
Societatis Jesu of Claudius of Aquaviva. Follow- 
ing that, they distinguished two courses of teach- 
ing, a higher and a lower. The lower included 
nothing but an external knowledge of the Latin 



JESUIT SCHOOLS 267 

language, and some fortuitous knowledge of his- 
tory, of antiquities, and of mythology. The 
memory was cultivated as a means of keeping 
down free activity of thought and clearness of 
judgment. The higher course comprehended dia- 
lectics, rhetoric, physics, and morals. Dialectics 
was expounded as the art of sophistry. In rhet- 
oric, they favored the polemical and emphatic style 
of the African Fathers of the church and their 
gorgeous phraseology; in physics, they followed 
Aristotle closely, and especially encouraged reading 
of the books ' De Generatione et Corruptione ' and 
* De Coelo, ' on which they commented after their 
fashion; finally, in morals, casuistic skepticism was 
their central point. They made much of rhetoric, 
on account of their sermons, giving to it careful 
attention. They laid stress on declamation, and 
introduced it into their showy public examinations 
through the performance of Latin school comedies, 
and thus amused the public, disposed them to 
approval, and at the same time quite innocently 
practiced the pupil in the art of assuming a feigned 
character. 

' ' Diplomatic conduct was made necessary to the 
pupils of the Jesuits, as well by their strict military 



268 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

discipline as by their system of mutual distrust, 
espionage, and informing. Implicit obedience 
relieved the pupils from all responsibility as to the 
moral justification of their deeds. This exact fol- 
lowing out of all commands and refraining from 
any criticism as to principles, created a moral 
indifference; and, from the necessity of having 
consideration for the peculiarities and caprices of 
the superior on whom all others were dependent, 
arose eye service. The coolness of mutual dis- 
trust sprang from the necessity which each felt of 
being on his guard against every other as a tale- 
bearer. The most deliberate hypocrisy and pleas- 
ure in intrigue merely for the sake of intrigue — 
this subtilest poison of moral corruption — Were 
the result. Jesuitism had not only an interest in 
the material profit, which, when it had corrupted 
souls, fell to its share, but it also had an inter- 
est in the educative process of corruption. With 
absolute indifference as to the idea of morality 
... or the moral quaHty of the means used to 
attain its end, it rejoiced in the efficacy of secrecy, 
and the accomplished and calculating understand- 
ing, and in deceiving the credulous by means of its 
graceful, seemingly scrupulous, moral language."" 

13 u Philosophy of Education," page 270. 



OBJECT OF JESUIT SCHOOLS 269 

Soread of ^^^® ^^ ^ picture of this papacy of the 
Catholh papacy. Again I say, had Protestantism 
cism by remained true to principle, even this 
schools system could not have accomplished its 
overthrow; but since truth was neglected by Prot- 
estant schools, this system of the Jesuits easily 
carried every country into which it was introduced. 
' * The Jesuit system of education ... was in- 
tended to meet the active influence of Protestant- 
ism in education. It was remarkably successful, 
and for a century [following 1584] nearly all 
the foremost men of Christendom came from 
Jesuit schools. In 17 10 they had six hundred 
and twelve colleges, one hundred and fifty-seven 
normal schools, twenty-four universities, and an 
immense number of lower schools. These schools 
laid very great stress on emulation. Their experi- 
ments in this principle are so extensive and long- 
continued that they furnish a most valuable phase 
in the history of pedagogy in this respect alone. 
In the matter of supervision they are also worthy 
of study. They had a fivefold system, each sub- 
ordinate being obedient to his superioro Besides 
this, there was a complete system of espionage 
on the part of the teachers and pupil monitors. ^* 

^^Jdetn^ pages 271, 272. 



270 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

On the subject of emulation, as made 

,^. . use of in the schools of the Jesuits, 
Jesuitical j » 

schools Painter gives us these thoughts: ''The 
Jesuits made much of emulation, and in 
their eager desire to promote it they adopted 
means that could not fail to excite jealousy and 
envy. Says the Plan of Studies: ' He who knows 
how to excite emulation has found the most power- 
ful auxiliary in his teaching. Let the teacher, 
then, highly appreciate this valuable aid, and let 
him study to make the wisest use of it. Emulation 
awakens and develops all the powers of man. In 
order to maintain emulation, it will be necessary 
that each pupil have a rival to control his conduct 
and criticise him; also magistrates, questors, cen- 
sors, and decurians should be appointed among the 
students. Nothing will be held more honorable 
than to outstrip a fellow student, and nothing 
more dishonorable than to be outstripped. Prizes 
will be distributed to the best pupils with the 
greatest possible solemnity. Out of school the 
place of honor will everywhere be given to the 
most distinguished pupils.' " ^^ 

As the Colossus of Rhodes stood astride the 
Greek waters, so the Jesuit schools spanned the 

15 " History of Education," pages 171, 172. 



METHODS OF JESUITS 271 

gulf of education. One foot stood in Greece 
amidst its classics (for ' * Aristotle furnished the 
leading text-books"), the other on Christian soil, 
having the form of godhness; but like the demigods 
of Greece, it was neither human nor divine. The 
results of the educational system of the Jesuits 
are well summed up in another paragraph from 
Painter: — 

' ' The Jesuit system of education, based not 
upon a study of man, but upon the interests of the 
order, was necessarily narrow. It sought showy 
results with which to dazzle the world. A well- 
rounded development was nothing. The principle 
of authority, suppressing all freedom and independ- 
ence of thought, prevailed from beginning to end. 
Religious pride and intolerance were fostered. 
While our baser feelings were highly stimulated, 
the nobler side of our nature was wholly neglected. 
Love of country, fidelity to friends, nobleness of 
character, enthusiasm for beautiful ideals, were 
insidiously suppressed. For the rest, we adopt 
the language of Quick: ' The Jesuits did not aim at 
developing a// the faculties of their pupils, but 
merely the receptive and reproductive faculties. 
When the young man had acquired a thorough 



272 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

mastery of the Latin language for all purposes; 
when he was well versed in the theological and 
philosophical opinions of his preceptors; when he 
was skillful in dispute, and could make a brilliant 
display from the resources of a well-stored memory, 
he had reached the highest points to which the Jes- 
uits sought to lead him. Originality and independ- 
ence of mind, love of truth for its own sake, the 
power of reflecting and of forming correct judg- 
ments, were not merely neglected, they were sup- 
pressed in the Jesuits' system. But in what they 
attempted they were eminently successful, and 
their success went a long way toward securing their 
popularity.'"'' 

One can not condemn without reserve 
Wherein 
Jesuit ^^^ Jesuitical system of education; for 

schools all false systems contain some points of 

worthy truth, and the strength of all these sys- 

^ ™ ^"^ tems lies in their close counterfeit of the 
tion 

true. Hence we can agree with these 

words: "Whatever its defects as a system of gen- 
eral education, it vv^as admirably suited to Jesuit pur- 
poses, and in some particulars it embodied valuable 
principles." As the progress of the papacy through 
the Jesuitical schools is followed into one country 

16 Idem^ pages 172, 173. 



JESUITS DILIGENT 273 

and then another, one admires the constancy and 
self-sacrifice of those who have committed their 
Hves. to the order. Had Protestants been one half 
as diligent in advocating the principles of Christian 
education as the Jesuit teachers have been in coun- 
teracting the influence of the Reformation, far dif- 
ferent results would to-daj^ be seen in the world. 
In tracing the growth of the schools of 

the Jesuits we bee^in with Germany, the 
of Jesuit ** ^ ^ 

schools heart of the reform movement, and fol- 
low quite carefully the history as given 
by Ranke: ''Bishop Urban became acquainted 
with Le Jay and heard from him, for the first 
time, of the colleges the Jesuits had founded in 
several universities. 

' ' Upon this the bishop advised his im- 
. . " perial master [Ferdinand I] to found a 
Vienna similar college in Vienna, seeing how 
great was the decay of Catholic theology 
in Germany. Ferdinand warmly embraced the 
suggestion; in a letter he wrote to Loyola on the 
subject, he declares his conviction that the only 
meajis to uphold the declining cause of Catholicism 
in Germany, was to give the rising generation 
learned and pious Catholics for teachers,'' We 
18 



274 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

can understand the grounds for this decision 
when we recall the statement that about 1563 
it was said that * ' twenty years had elapsed in 
Vienna since a single student of the university 
had taken priest's orders." **The preliminaries," 
says Ranke, * ' were easily arranged. In the year 
1 5 5 1 thirteen Jesuits, among them Le Jay him- 
self, arrived in Vienna, and were in the first 
instance, granted a dwelling, chapel, and pen- 
sion, by Ferdinand, until shortly after he incor- 
porated them with the university, and even 
assigned to them the visitation of it. " *' Soon after 
this they arose to consideration in Cologne,'" but 
for a time had little success. In 1556 the endowed 
school referred to before governed by a Protestant 
regent, * ' gave them an opportunity of gaining a 
firmer footing. For since there was a party in the 
city bent above all things on maintaining the Cath- 
olic character of the university, the advice given 
by the patrons of the Jesuits to hand over the 
establishment to that order, met with attention." 
* ' At the same period they also gained a firm foot- 
ing in Ingoldstadt.'' **From these three metro- 
politan centers the Jesuits now spread out in every 
direction. ' ' These schools were, some of them at 



CATHOLIC TRAINING-SCHOOL 275 

least, training schools for Catholic teachers; for 
Ranke tells of a certain man in Hungary, Olahus 
by name, and dedicated in infancy to the church, 
who, ' ' contemplating the general decay of Catholi- 
cism in Hungary, saw that the last hope left for it 
was that of maintaining its hold on the common 
people, who had not yet wholly lapsed from its 
rule. To this end, however, there lacked teachers 
of CathoHc principles, and to form whom, he 
founded a college of Jesuits at Tyrnau in the year 
1 561." **Two privy councilors of the elector 
Daniel, of Mainz, . . . conceived likewise that the 
admission of the Jesuits was the only means that 
promised a recovery of the University of Mainz. 
In spite of the opposition made by the canons and 
feudal proprietors, they founded a college of the 
order in Mainz, and a preparatory school in 
Aschaffenburg. " 

The Jesuits advanced up the Rhine. 
H Id lb ' They particularly coveted a settlement 

at Spires, both because . . . there were 
so many distinguished men [assembled there] over 
whom it would be of extraordinary moment to 
possess influence; and also in order to be placed 
near the Heidelberg University, which at that day 



276 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

enjoyed the highest repute for its Protestant pro- 
fessors. They gradually carried their point." It 
is interesting to note how they shadowed the 
Protestant schools, as if, like a parasite, to suck 
from them their life. ' ' In order to bring back 
his University of Dillingen to its original pur- 
pose, Cardinal Truchess resolved to dismiss all 
the professors who still taught there, and to com- 
mit the establishment entirely to the Jesuits." 
Raoid ^^ show the rapidity with which the 

growth of Jesuits worked, Ranke says: **In the 
Jesuit year 1551 they had not yet any fixed 

schools position in Germany;" ''in 1556 they 
had extended over Bavaria and the Tyrol, Fran- 
conia, and Swabia, a great part of Rhineland^ and 
Austria, and they had penetrated into Hungary, 
Bohemia, and Moravia." True to the purpose of 
the order, * * their labors were above all devoted 
to the universities. They were ambitious of rival- 
ing the fame of those of the Protestants." 
Jesuits' ' ' ^^^ Jesuits displayed no less assiduity 
prepara- in the conduct of their Latin schools. 
tory It was one of the leading maxims of 

sc 00 s Lainez that the lower grammatical 
classes should be supplied with good teachers. 



JESUITS TEACH FOR PROTESTANTS 277 

since first impressions exercise the greatest influ- 
ence over the whole future life of the individual." 
The Jesuits were wilHng to devote a lifetime 
to one phase of education. * ' It was found that 
young persons learned more under them in half a 
year than with others in two years; even Protes- 
tants called back their children from distant 
schools, and put them under the care of the 
Jesuits." From this last sentence two things are 
to be observed. Protestants had lost sight of the 
importance of education, and their schools had 
greatly deteriorated, else they would not have 
intrusted their children to the Jesuits. While the 
Jesuits began by working into the universities, 
^ ' schools for the poor, modes of instruction 
adapted for children, and catechizing followed." 
' ' The instruction of the Jesuits was 
Reputation ^Qj^^^ 1 wholly in the spirit of that 
of Jesuit , , . 

schools enthusiastic devotion which had from 

the first so peculiarly characterized their 
order." This had its effect; for earnest, whole- 
hearted work on the part of the teacher, even 
though the methods may be wrong and material 
false, will surely react in the lives of the pupils. 
Viewing the work of Jesuit teachers, one feels 



278 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

to exclaim, ** Since thou art so noble, I would 
thou wert on our side!" And so "erelong the 
children, who frequented the schools of the 
Jesuits in Vienna, were distinguished for their 
resolute refusal to partake on fast days of for- 
bidden meats which their parents ate." 

Teachers had more weight with the 
Jesuits 
conquered children than the parents themselves, 

Qermany and became leaders of the older mem- 
by their bers of the family, so that * * the feelings 
scnoo s ^j^^g engendered in the schools were 
propagated throughout the mass of the population 
by preaching and confession." 

The final results in Germany, Ranke gives thus: 
' ' They occupied the professors ' chairs, and found 
pupils who attached themselves to their doctrines. 
, . . T/iej/ conquered the Germans on their own 
soil, in their very home^ and wrested from them 
a part of their native layid.''^'^ So much for 
Germany and its Jesuit schools. 

Concerning the capture of France by the 

Jesuit Jesuits it is not necessary to say much. 

schools 

in France ^^^^^^ gives a few strong paragraphs, 

showing the work of the order as teach- 
ers. The Protestants of France made a great 

" ♦• History of the Popes," book 5, pages 134, 137-139. 



FRANCE AND JESUIT SCHOOLS 279 

mistake, and brought their cause into disrepute, 
especially in Paris, by taking up arms in a time 
of commotion, and Ranke says: "Backed by 
this state of public feehng, the Jesuits established 
themselves in France. They began there on a 
somewhat small scale, being constrained to con- 
tent themselves v^ith colleges throw^n open to them 
by a few ecclesiastics. . . . They encountered at 
first the most obstinate resistance in the great 
cities, especially in Paris, . . . but they at last 
forced their way through all impediments, and 
were admitted in the year 1564 to the privilege 
of teaching. Lyons had already received them. 
Whether it was the result of good fortune or of 
merit, they were enabled at once to produce some 
men of brilliant talents from amongst them. . . . 
In Lyons, especially, the Huguenots were com- 
pletely routed, their preachers exiled, their 
churches demolished, and their books burned; 
whilst, on the other hand, a splendid college was 
erected for the Jesuits in 1567. They had also a 
distinguished professor, whose exposition of the 
Bible attracted crowds of charmed and atteritive 
youth. From these chief towns they now spread 
over the kingdom in every direction. " ^^ Through 

"^^ Ideffi, page 146. 



28o EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

the influence gained as educators, 3,800 copies 
of Angier's Catechism were sold in the space of 
eight years in Paris alone. France no longer 
leaned toward Protestantism. She had been re- 
gained by the Jesuit schools. 

Concerning the work in England, more 
Jesuitical -^ g^-^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ connection with that 
schools in 
Enicland kmgdom adds weight m our eyes to 

the history of her education. Thomp- 
son says: "During the reign of Elizabeth the 
papal authorities renewed their exertions to put 
a stop to Protestantism in England, and sent 
more Jesuits there for that purpose."^® What 
they could not accomplish through intrigue and 
civil poHcy they were more sure to gain through 
the schools; hence Thompson says: ''They ac- 
complished one thing, which was to carry away 
with them several young English noblemen, to be 
educated by the Jesuits in Flanders, so as to fit 
them for treason against their own country, — re- 
peating in this the experiment Loyola had made in 
Germany. . . . The Jesuits endeavored to become 
the educators of English youths as they had those 
of Germany. . . . The pope therefore established 

19 « Footprints of the Jesuits," page 133. 



JESUITS IN AMERICA 281 

an English college at Rome, to educate young 

Englishmen." 

Of this college, Ranke tells us further: 

"^ *^ ' < WiUiam Allen first conceived the idea 
college at 
Rome °^ uniting the young English Catholics 

who resided on the continent for the 
prosecution of their studies, and, chiefly through 
the support of Pope Gregory, he estabHshed a 
college for them at Douay. This, however, did 
not seem to the pope to be adequate for the 
purpose in view. He wished to provide for those 
fugitives under his own eyes a more tranquil and 
less dangerous retreat than could be found in the 
disturbed Netherlands; accordingly he founded an 
English college in Rome, and consigned it to the 
care of the Jesuits. No one was admitted into the 
college who did not pledge himself, on the comple- 
tion of his studies, to return to England, and to 
preach there the faith of the Roman Church." ^" 

America was settled when the Jesuit 

Jesuits as power was at its height. Those teachers 

eac ers n ^j^^ penetrated Germany without fear, 

and secretly stole into England when it 
was unsafe for them to be identified, followed 

20" History of the Popes," book 5, page 152, 



282 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

closely the paths of discovery and settlement. **In 
the beginning of the seventeenth century we find," 
says Ranke, * ' the stately fabric of the Catholic 
Church in South America fully reared. ... The 
Jesuits taught grammar and the liberal arts, and a 
theological seminary was connected with their col- 
lege of San Ildefonso. All branches of theological 
study were taught in the universities of Mexico 
and Lima."^^ 

In North America their vigilance was no 
Jesuits In less marked. **In 1611 Jesuit mission- 

the United . a ^ u a -.u 

aries came over and labored with 
States 

remarkable zeal and success in convert- 
ing the Indians." ''^^ In Maryland, a Catholic 
colony from the first, they held unbounded sway. 
Speaking of the time of Lord Baltimore, Thomp- 
son says: '*At that time, in England, the papists 
were chiefly under the influence of the Jesuits, 
whose vigilance was too sleepless to permit the 
opportunity of planting their society in the New 
World to escape them." ^^ Their work has been 
quietly done from the very first, and some think 

21 Idem, page 252. 

22 Fiske, ♦* United States History," page 54. 
2» " Papacy and Civil Power," page 685. 



JESUITS IN THE UNITED STATES 283 

that because of the papal decree of 1773, suppress- 
ing the order, they have ceased their work. This, 
however, is a mistake; for *' Gregory XVI, whose 
pontificate commenced in 1831, was the first pope 
who seemed encouraged by the idea that the 
papacy would ultimately establish itself in the 
United States. His chief reliance, as the means 
of realizing this hope, was upon the Jesuits^ upon 
whose entire devotion to the principles of absolut- 
ism he could confidently rely." ^* But the Jesuits 
always accomplish their work largely by means of 
education, hence we may look for them to use the 
same tactics in our country that had proved so 
eminently successful to their cause in England and 
Germany. 

*'The chief thinef with the Jesuits," as 
Object of *" -* 

Jesuit Gressinger writes, ' * was to obtain the 

schooSsIn sole direction of education, so that by 

America getting the young into their hands, they 

could fashion them after their own pattern." It 

has been the avowed aim of the Jesuits to stamp 

out Protestantism, and with this, republicanism. 

In this country, where these two principles were 

pre-eminently conspicuous, and so closely asso- 

2* Ide77i^ page 98. 



284 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

dated that whatever kills one kills the other, it is 
doubly true that by gaining control of the educa- 
tional system the order could work for the papacy 
the utter ruin of America, both from a religious 
and a civil standpoint. From the dawn of our his- 
tory there has been within our borders, mingling 
with our loyal citizens, a class of educators who 
carry out this principle described by Thompson. 
* ' The Roman Catholic youth are forbidden by the 
papal system from accepting as true the principles 
of the Declaration of Independence or of the Con- 
stitution of the United States." ^^ Leo XIII, who 
was educated a Jesuit [Thompson], remains true to 
his principles. His biographer says ' ' that the 
' false education ' and ' antichristian training ' of 
the young v/hich prevail in the United States and 
among the liberal and progressive peoples of the 
world must be done away with, abandoned, and 
'Thomas Aquinnas [a Catholic of the thirteenth 
century] must once more be enthroned as the 
** angel of the schools; " his methods and doctrines 
must be the light of all higher teaching, for his 
works are only revealed truth set before the hu- 
man mind in its most scientific form.' " ^^ 

25 "Footprints of the Jesuits," page 419. 
^^ Idem, page 408. 



PUBLIC PULSE TESTED 285 

It is unnecessary to state the number of 

schools estabhshed by CathoHcs in the 
of papal 

principles United States, which have been placed 
under the control of the Jesuits; neither 
is it necessary to trace the attempts which have 
been made by the papacy, at irregular periods in 
our ^history, to obtain the control of our public 
school system. The affairs at Stillwater, Minn., 
and at Farabault, in the same State, while unsuc- 
cessful, were weather vanes showing the direction 
of the wind, — were posers to test the public 
pulse, and just so surely show the policy of the 
papacy in educational matters. Of far greater 
importance to us as Protestants is the fact that 
Jesuitical principles may a7id do prevail in our 
popular system of education^ and these principles, 
whether carried out by Jesuits, or by the ordinary 
teacher who is unconscious of her situation, and 
unmindful of the result of her methods, bring 
about the fall of Protestantism and republicanism. 
Our nation has repudiated her foundation princi- 
ples; are our Protestant churches doing hkewise .^ 
The history of the educational institutions of the 
United States, which are discussed in the next chap- 
ters, will show how the plan of work now followed 



286 EDUCATIONAL REACTION 

in our universities, colleges, and schools of lower 

grades, are patterning after Sturm, and how they 

go farther back, connecting the twentieth century 

with the scholasticism of the Middle Ages. It is 

without the slightest feelings of animosity toward 

the Jesuits or the papacy that these facts are 

traced. These both do for their cause what will 

best serve to upbuild it. Their methods, in so far 

as they accomplish their desired end, are to be 

commended, and their zeal is ever to be admired. 

The one problem for Protestants to 
An edu- '^ 

catlonal solve is whether to accept Jesuitical, 
question papal education, and thus become 
for Prot- papal, forming * * an image to the 
Beast," — to use the language of the 
Apocalypse, — or whether they will follow the prin- 
ciples of Christian education, and remain true to 
the name Protestant. Let the reader forget 
the names; but let him remember that there are 
but two principles in the world, when the stand- 
ard of eternal truth is recognized; one exalts 
Christ, and gives life everlasting; the other exalts 
man, and its life is for this world alone. Educa- 
tion according to the second does, in its methods, 
dwarf, enfeeble, and belittle. It puts stress upon 



REPUBLICANISM AND PAPACY 287 

the unimportant, and passes by truth without a 
glance. It prepares the mind for absolutism both 
in government and religion. Education according 
to the first will be based upon methods which 
develop, in every particular, the human being. 
It is a mental, moral, and physical education, and 
its object is so to educate that eventually each of 
these three natures will assume the right relation 
to the other two, and again, as on the Mount of 
Transfiguration with the Son of God, ''divinity 
within will flash forth to meet divinity without. " 



XIV 

AMERICA AND THE EDUCATIONAL 
PROBLEM 

Protestantism and Republicanism, Born of 
THE Reformation, Nourished by Schools. — As 
if lifted from the bosom of the deep by the mighty 
hand of God, America stood forth to receive the 
principles of religious and civil freedom born of 
the Reformation on German soil. To the Ger- 
man government was first offered the opportunity 
of developing to the full the reform movement. 
This full and complete development would have 
meant religious liberty for all, and a government 
by the people, — Protestantism and republicanism. 
These two systems go hand in hand, and are more 
closely connected than any other principles in 
existence. The death of one means the death of 
the other, for the same lifeblood nourishes both. 

Germany started well. There were to be found 

princes, liberal in mind and government, who 

accepted the new religion, and stood by the 

Reformers through all their storm-tossed career. 

288 



PROTESTANTISM AND REPUBLICANISM 289 

God had raised up these men for the time and 
place, as surely as he called Nebuchadnezzar, or 
appointed a work for Cyrus, Protestantism was 
firmly rooted, and, as we have already seen, 
during the first forty years of its existence, so 
strong was its vitality that men and nations bowed 
before it. The early Reformers, especially Luther 
and Melancthon, connected the movement with 
the fountain of life when they introduced a system 
of Christian education. And previous chapters 
make plain the truth that the life of the entire 
movement in its twofold aspect — Protestantism 
and republicanism — depended upon a right educa- 
tional system. When the mass of German youth 
sat at the feet of German teachers, and those 
teachers were true to the principles of Christian 
education, Roman influence dwindled, and her 
very life was threatened. It was then that the 
papacy itself took up the subject of education, 
and by the work of the Jesuits succeeded in kill- 
ing the Reform in Germany, — indeed, in all 
Europe. 

* * A day of great intellectual darkness has been 
shown to be favorable to the success of popery. 
It will yet be demonstrated that a day of great 
19 



296 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

intellectual light is equally favorable for its 

success." 

P ote = ^^^ Jesuits planted schools of their own 

tantism in the shadow of Protestant schools; 

killed by they entered Protestant schools as teach- 

Jes'jit gj.g. ^j^gy sucked the life-blood from the 

schools 

young child, and it faded and died. 

The principles of the Reformation found honest 
hearts in the Netherlands. The Dutch took up 
the question of education; but the Jesuits were 
again on the track, and, as Ranke says, * * They 
gradually carried their point." The Reformation 
crossed the Channel, to find the hearts of English- 
men longing for greater freedom. Lollardism, 
started by Wyclif two hundred years earlier, sprang 
anew into life in the hearts of the Puritans, until, 
in the reign of Henry VIII, more than one half of 
the English population was Protestant. Finally 
the Commonwealth was established. 
England ^^ England was offered the opportunity 
loses her oi showing to the world the perfect 
golden fruits of the Reformation in its Protes- 
oppor- i^j^^ religion and a republican govern- 
ment. But alas! the story is repeated. 
English youth fell into the hands of Jesuits. An 



ENGLAND'S LOSS 291 

English college was founded at Rome, and teach- 
ers, ministers, and canvassers returned to their 
native land with the avowed purpose of their edu- 
cators, the Jesuits, to^ overthrow the Reformation. 
And England fell! 

Those famihar words from the pen of Luther, 
which appear in his letter appealing for aid in the 
establishment of Protestant schools, echo through 
England also: **The Word of God and His grace 
are like a shower that falls, and passes away. It 
was among the Jews; but it passed away, and now 
they have it no longer. Paul carried it to Greece; 
but in that country also it has passed away, and 
the Turk reigns there now. It came to Rome and 
the Latin empire; but there also it has passed 
away, and Rome now has the pope. O, Ger- 
mans, do not expect to have this Word forever!" 
Could this man of God have come forth from his 
grave a century later, and have looked over his 
loved Germany, and over England, he would have 
added these names to those of the countries where 
God's Word and His grace had been, but had 
passed away. Must the name of America be 
added to the above list ? May Protestants be 
aroused before it is too late ! 



292 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

Finding that England closed her doors 

® against progress, the Puritans sought 

Puritan 
exodus greater freedom in the Netherlands. 

They were disappointed, for they could 
not there educate their children as Protestantism 
taught them that they should be educated. As 
Pilgrims they sought new homes in America, find- 
ing a retreat on the bleak shores of New England. 

Proles- ^^ ^^ ^^^ °^^ ^^^y *^ trace the growth 
tantisin and decline of Protestantism in our own 
reaches land. Its prosperity in every other 
merca country has been in proportion to its 
adherence to the correct principles of education; 
its decline has without exception been the result of 
a wrong system of education. How is it in the 
United States.? 

No student of history, and especially of pro- 
phetic history, doubts for a moment that the way 
was divinely prepared for Protestantism to cross 
the Atlantic, and it is equally as evident that 
that same Hand was upholding those principles 
after they reached these shores. God's Word 
spoke often to the hearts of men, leading them to 
devise plans, pass laws, establish institutions, and 
in various ways to so work that His truths might 



PURITAN EXODUS 293 

here grow to a perfection which they never 
reached in the old country. On the other hand, 
those teachings which have frustrated the princi- 
ples of Protestantism in Europe are seen to be at 
work in America from the first planting of a colony 
until the present day. That strength-producing 
element was Christian education; that counter- 
acting * influence was false or papal education. 
These two form the subject of this chapter. 

United States history is interwoven with 
tlonal His- ^^ history of education. Her founders, 
tory of the especially of the New England colonies, 

United traced their origin to an educational 

States 

center in England, and as early New 

England history circles about Harvard, so the 
fathers and supporters of that institution traced 
their origin in Old England to the counties of East 
Anglia, where Cambridge University bore sway. 
* * Of the first six hundred who landed in Massa- 
chusetts, one in thirty, it is said, was a graduate 
of the English Cambridge. These and their com- 
panions were rare men. They had the schooling 
for a service the like of whose execution, in com- 
pleteness and good sense, the world has never 
equaled." ^ 

1 Boone, ** Education in the United States," page 8. 



294 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

''With matchless wisdom they joined hberty 
and learning in a perpetual and holy alliance, 
binding the latter to bless every child with instruc- 
tion, which the former invests with the rights 
and duties of citizenship. They made education 
and sovereignty co-extensive, by making both 
universal." * 

John Fiske enlarges upon this thought.* The 
''greater hospitality of Cambridge [University, 
England] toward new ideas " is proverbial, and the 
very names, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and 
Essex, Cambridge and Huntingdon, familiar in the 
geography of New England, are telling a story of 
Protestant education. 

Radical Strong as the Puritans seemed in de- 
and Con- nouncing the Church of Rome, and in 
servative accepting Protestantism, which, at the 
beginning of the seventeenth century, 
more than ever before, meant separation from the 
estabUshed church and the established forms of 
government, they were not united in thought. 
There were two classes : Puritans, and a class of 
this class represented by such men as Richard 

* ** Beginnings of New England," pages 62, 63. 

* E. E. White, "Proceedings of National Educational Associa- 
tion," 1882. 



THE CHURCHES AND EDUCATION 295 

Hooker. Of the Puritans, Fiske says : * ' Some 
would have stopped short with Presbyterianism, 
while others held that ' new presbyter was but old 
priest writ large, ' and so pressed on to Independ- 
dency."* This difference of opinion on religious 
matters is discernible when representatives of both 
classes, mingling in the society about Boston, 
started the educational work of America. Those 
incHned to remain under the banner of Presby- 
terianism taunted the others, who were knov/n as 
Brownists, or Separatists, and who followed Will- 
iam Brewster to America, with anarchy, merely 
because they believed in carrying out fully the 
principles for which all were ready to fight. 

Thus from the first has our educational work 
fallen into the hands of two classes of men, — a 
class willing to compromise in order to keep peace, 
and a bold, daring class, who advocated stepping 
out on truth regardless of what might follow. 
Conereea- '^^^^^ was a mighty educational problem 
tionalism before the church. The Episcopalians 
and edu- had failed to take up that work in Eng- 
*^*'®" land; it was from their midst that Wm. 

Brewster, a Cambridge graduate, John Robinson, 

* Idem, page 66, 



296 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

who also was graduated from Cambridge in 1600, 
and William Bradford, afterward governor of 
Plymouth for thirty years, withdrew to form the 
nucleus of the Congregational Church, which 
had its origin at Scrooby, England, and ended 
m Plymouth. What Episcopalianism had over- 
looked in the matter of education in England it 
now became the duty and privilege of the new 
church to begin on the virgin soil of America. 

The reader is familiar with the fact thai 
The New ^^^ Puritans, leaving England because 
England r • m , i- • 

theocracy ^^ ^ religious oppression, the 

result of a union of church and state, 
came to America for freedom, and, contrary to 
what one would expect, especially at a casual 
glance, they here developed a theocracy. ' ' The 
aim of Winthrop and his friends in coming to 
Massachusetts was the construction of a theocratic 
state which should be to Christians ... all that 
the theocracy of Moses and Joshua and Samuel 
had been to the Jews. ... In such a scheme 
there was no room for religious liberty. . . . The 
state they were to found was to consist of a 
united body of believers; citizenship itself was to 
be co-extensive with church membership.'"^ 

6'< Beginnings of New England," page 146. 



THEOCRACY AND EDUCATION 297 

It is equally well known, however, that 
Educa- . 

tional ^^^^ theocratic form was soon broken; 

work and while the United States is beginning 

breaks the ^o find herself again approaching this 

eocracy j^q^Jq Qf government, it is a remarkable 
fact, and one well worthy of our closest considera- 
tion, that the ancient theocracy of New England 
was broken by the power of the educational 
system there introduced. When this is read from 
the pages, that follow, let the reader answer the 
question whether or not the repudiation of Prot- 
estant principles and the principles of republi- 
canism by the United States in the nineteenth 
century is equally due to the present system. 
Bear in mind the question as we proceed. 

The educational history of the United States 
may conveniently be studied in three sections; i, 
colonial; 2, revolutionary; 3, nineteenth century. 

I. The Colonial Period. 

Since Harvard College, the American 

T e oun = Cambridge, ''accomplished," as Boone 

ing of 

Harvard ^^^^^ '*^ much needed work, with 

manifold wholesome reactions upon so- 
ciety and government, so that it has been affirmed, 



298 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

with show of truth, that * the founding of Harvard 
College hastened the Revolution half a century,' " ^ 
our study of the schools of the colonial period will 
center around this institution. It can be stated 
with safety that the history of Harvard, its leading 
men, and its varying attitude toward different 
Colonial problems, throws light on the develop- 
ment of the question of education at the time 
when the foundations of our national government 
were laid. 

When Boston was but six years old, plans 
were laid for America's first college. ''Among 
the early educational leaders," says Boone, ''were 
such men as the Rev. Thomas Shepherd, John 
Cotton, and John Wilson, Jr. ; all clergymen and 
all college-bred; Stoughton; Dudley, the deputy- 
governor, and, above all, ' Winthrop, the gov-- 
ernor, the guide and good genius of the colony.' 
Such were the men ... of the infant colony. 
. . . Here were learning and character; world- 
wisdom and refinements of heart; breadth and 
wholeness of culture, such as could alone justify 
the boldness of their attempt.'" The institution 

^"Education in the United States," page 30. 
'/</.?;«, page 20. 



FOUNDING OF HARVARD 299 

was started in poverty, four hundred pounds being 
voted by the people. The high motive which 
prompted the enterprise was ' * an unbounded zeal 
for an education, that to them seemed not so much 
desirable as necessary, tkat ' the light of learning 
might not go out^ nor the study of God's Word 
perish.' " 

Obiect of '^^^ object of the school, as held by the 
Harvard to founders, is well described by a Boston 
train min- citizen, who writes thus in 1643 ^^ some 
Isters ^j j^.g fi-iends: ''After we had builded 

our houses, provided necessaries for our liveli- 
hood, reared convenient places for worship, and 
settled the civil government, one of the next 
things we longed for and looked after was to 
advance learning and to perpetuate it to pos- 
terity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to 
the churches, when our present ministers shall 
lie in the dust. And as we were thinking and 
consulting how to effect this great work, it pleased 
God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Howard (a 
godly gentleman and a lover of learning, then 
living among us) to give the one half of his estate 
. . . toward the erecting of a College, and all 
his library." 



300 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

In the contemplation of a college by those 
noble men, the uppermost thought was how to 
gain an educated ministry. This object was lost 
sight of. 

'* It must be remembered," writes Boone, "that 
for sixty years the institution was little more 
than a training-school for ministers^ managed as 
a theological seminary, having religion, of a more 
or less well-defined type, as its basis and chief 
object. Yet, as Professor Emerson has put it, 
' It is one of the most remarkable things in the 
history of Harvard, that, in all the constitutions 
of the college there is nothing illiberal or secta- 
rian ; nothing to check the freest pursuit of 
truth in theological opinio7ts^ and in everything 
else ; and this, too, while the founders of the 
college were severely and strictly orthodox, often 
exclusive in their own opinions, and while their 
object was unquestionably to provide for the thor- 
ough education of ministers of the gospel in like 
views with themselves.'" <*The very foundation 
idea of the college," says Boone, in another para- 
graph, * * was the theological want. ' ' 

' * The presidents and members of the corpora- 
tion were generally the prominent scholars, the 



HARVARD A TRAINING SCHOOL 301 

theologians, and the political leaders of the com- 
munity and time. The college easily came to be 
the arena upon which, or the interest about which, 
were fought those terrible logomachies of dogma 
and doctrine. These required, as they had, the 
best learning, the shrewdest insight, the most 
politic minds of the day." 

This perhaps explains that former statement, 
that the education of ministers by Harvard had 
more than anything else to do with the over- 
throw of the theocracy established about Boston. 
.__ It is interesting, also, to note the spirit 
fest^ spirit of democracy which this institution fos- 
o emoc- |.gj.g(j jj^ speaking of the raising of the 
fund for erecting the building, Boone 
says: **The colony caught his [Mr. Harvard's] 
spirit, . . . and all did something, even the in- 
digent. One subscribed a number of sheep; an- 
other, nine shiUings' worth of cloth; one, a 
ten-shilHng pewter flagon; others, a fruit-dish, a 
sugar-spoon, a silver-tipped jug, etc. ... No 
rank, no class of men, is unrepresented. The 
school was of the people."^ ''It was nursed 
by democracy," and it in turn nursed democ- 
racy. Surely the Spirit of God was pleading 

*" Education in the United States," pages 23, 24, 29. 



302 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

with men so to arrange their leading educational 
institution that the principles of the Reforma- 
tion might be perpetuated. 

The course of study for this ministers* 
Early ^ 

course of school, as described by Emerson, was 

study In remarkably free from sectarianism, and 
Harvard 

liberal in thought. ' ' The Bible was 

systematically studied for the entire three years, 
Ezra, Daniel, and the New Testament being speci- 
fied. A year was given to catechetical divinity."^ 
Students were required to attend worship twice 
daily, when the Scriptures were read in Hebrew 
or Greek, and they were required to translate 
the selection. History received some attention, 
but the sciences were practically unknown, and 
'*all profane literature was excluded." 

Through all this is discernible the attempt to 
educate for the cause of Christ. With this be- 
ginning, what might have been accomplished had 
the plan, with truth unadulterated, been followed! 
The work done in later days by the schools, under 
the direction of the State, is but an indication of 
the broad field which lay ahead of Harvard and 
similar institutions, had the church remained in 
her province as the educator of her own children. 

'^ Idem, page 25, 



HARVARD'S DECLINE 303 

From the very foundation of Harvard 

* may be seen indications that there w^as 
of papal 
principles a-longside of these principles of Christian 

education somewhat of medieval teach- 
ing, which, unless discovered and banished would 
act as leaven, permeating the whole loaf. For 
instance, when the college was less than twenty 
years old, we find this requirement for admission 
announced: "When any scholar is able to read 
Tully or any Hke classical Latin author, ex tem- 
pore, and make and speak true Latin in verse and 
prose, and define perfectly the paradigms of nouns 
and verbs in the Greek tongue, then may he be 
admitted to the College; nor shall any claim 
admission before such qualifications." This, of 
course, was patterning after the European univer- 
sities, and theirs was a papal system. 

This was the Harvard of colonial times. As we 
enter the Revolutionary period, we may look for 
changes as the result of both the correct and the 
incorrect principles harbored. Is Harvard, with 
all her wonderful facilities, training as many for 
gospel service to-day as she did of old .? Yale, 
the second Congregational school, followed closely 
the plans and object of Harvard. 



304 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

«^ ^, William and Mary, the second colleere in 
Education -^ ^^ 

in Virginia *^^ United States, was founded under 
monar- different circumstances. It was born in 
chical the midst of wealth, and was befriended 

by cavaliers and courtiers. ''The roots," says 
•Boone, ' ' were deep in the great EngHsh ecclesias- 
tical system, " and yet the avowed object was 

* * that the college, when established, should be a 

* seminary for the breeding of good ministers. ' " 
Notwithstanding good intentions, it mixed scholas- 
tic teachings; for it stood for ** the Oxford order 
of humanities; the abstract as the foundation of 
the concrete; everything for discipline; the ancient 
languages before the modern." Jefferson was a 
graduate of this school, and later it will be seen 
how this man, whose mind comprehended so clearly 
the principles of religious liberty, strove to break 
away from this mixture in education, and advo- 
cated a decidedly secular education in schools 
which were supported by the State, thereby avoid- 
ing in such institutions the mixture of secular and 
religious training. 

So far, we see the Episcopal school, William 
and Mary, deeply rooted in the English ecclesias- 
tical system, and unable to receive the Reforma- 



THE CHURCH AND SCHOOLS 30^ 

tion principles of education pure and simple. The 
two Congregational schools, Harvard and Yale, 
approached more nearly the Protestant ideal, but 
being unable to break wholly the bond of scho- 
lasticism, they made much of preparatory work 
in the classics. 

Some of the educational problems with 
Educa- *^ 

tion prob- which our Colonial Fathers had to 

lems of wrestle were * ' parental responsibility, 

Colonial ^j^g general viciousness of indolence, the 
davs 

educative office of labor, the State's 

relation to individual need, compulsory employ- 
ment and schooling, the state ownership of child- 
life," and above all, and including all, the relation 
the church sustained to the schools, how far secu- 
lar education could be offered in Christian schools, 
and how far the church could ask aid of the state 
in the conduct of church schools. They were 
weighty questions upon which hung, and still 
hangs, the destiny of a nation. 

No sharp dividing line can be drawn between 
the Colonial and the Revolutionary periods. The 
work begun in the Colonial period prepared men 
to act a noble part in the Revolutionary period. 
The truth of the educational system would bear 



306 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

fruit, but the error which we have already noticed 
was in great danger of gaining strength enough to 
choke the pure principles. Mere accusations 
amount to but little. Let it suffice to follow the 
history of educational progress through the next 
century. Results speak for themselves. 

II. The Revolutionary Period. 

Foundinir ^^ addition to the instruction given by 
prepara- pious Puritan parents to the flock in 
tory their own homes, a limited number of 

schools common or church schools was estab- 
lished in the Colonial period. The position of 
academies, as they develop in the Revolutionary 
period, is significant. We find that "alongside 
each of the first colleges, frequently antedating 
them, sometimes forming part of the organization, 
was a grammar-school." 

Such schools, attached to Harvard, Yale, Prince- 
ton, William and Mary's, and others, prepared 
for the universities, and supplemented the work 
of the elementary or common schools. Herein 
lay a vital point. They had home schools, ele- 
mentary schools, and colleges. It was impossible 
for these elementary schools to fit students for 



CLASSICS DEMANDED 307 

university life when such schools required for 
entrance that the student should ''read Tully or 
any like classical Latin author ex tempore^ and 
make and speak true Latin in verse and prose, 
and decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and 
verbs in the Greek tongue," as has already been 
quoted from an early Harvard announcement. 
The uni- '^^^ universities founded by the church 
versities were, then, forming a course of study 
demanded for these grammar schools, or acad- 
classlcs emies, as they were soon called; and 
since the demand was for a classical preparatory 
school, naturally their courses were * ' fitted to the 
time-sanctioned curriculum of the college. They 
taught much Latin and Greek, an extended course 
in mathematics, and were strong generally on the 
side of the humanities." This was a modeling 
after Rugby, Eton, and other noted English 
schools, or the classical drill-schools of Ger- 
many, which, as we have before seen, were 
schools bearing decided marks of Jesuit teaching. 
Should a young man care to pursue his studies 
beyond the elementary school, his only oppor- 
tunity to do so was in one of the academies, 
where the classics formed the sum and sub- 



308 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

stance of the instruction. The tendency to revert 
to the established forms of European education, 
or the papal system, is plainly visible. 
Footprints '^^^ ^^^* colleges had been planted to 
of the give a Christian training, and doubtless 
papal had a start which might have resulted 

education ^^ ^^le greatest strength to the church, 
and to the nation in a secondary way; but the 
introduction of these grammar schools or acade- 
mies, with a course of study in the classics made 
necessary by the universities, threw the majority 
of the young people into a classical instead of a 
practical line of instruction. Looking at it from 
one standpoint, no wiser move could have been 
made to turn the tide of educational reform again 
toward papal education. Can we here trace the 
footprints of the Jesuits, whose policy since the 
days of Loyola had been to overthrow Protestant- 
ism by a false system of education .!* 
p . . .^The effect of the mixture of the pure 
ism and and the impure methods, traceable in 
republi- indistinct lines at the very beginning, 

canism ^^^ assumed more definite proportions. 
weakened 

The growth of academies was remarkably 

rapid, and when attention is called to such men as 



UNION FORMED 309 

Franklin, the Adamses, John Hancock, and the 
generation of ^^''J^^'' who received most of their 
education in these schools, it may seem like sheer 
presumption to condemn their work. The results, 
however, as seen in later years, warrant the charge 
that at that time was taken a long step from the 
principles of the Reformation, which meant to this 
country a weakening both in Protestantism and 
republicanism. 

Union of These academies were denominational. 
Christian it is true; still they offered this prescribed 
and papal course of instruction. Almost immedi- 
sys ems 2X^1^ appear signs of the result of this 
union of Christian education with scholasticism. 
For instance, we read that * * Brown University, 
though founded as a Baptist institution, v^^as never- 
theless one of the first schools of the period to 
emphasize the growing sentiment for a thoroughly 
undenominational collegiate training. " Why should 
a denominational college give an undenominational 
course of instruction, and why, above all denomina- 
tions, should the Baptists do so, to whom such a 
flood of light had come, and who always with pride 
pointed back to Roger Williams and the State of 
Rhode Island as the ancestors and embodiment 



3IO AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

of all that is Protestant and republican ? But 

this is not the only indication of this decUne 

from early principles. 

Harvard About 1793 Harvard assumed the name 

loses sight of university. Boone says, * ' Signs of 

of original Catholicity also appear, in that students 

^ ^®^ were no longer required to attend the 

divinity lectures, except they v^ere preparing for 

the ministry. . . . Literary societies, voluntary 

associations for social and general culture, were 

multiplied." 

**The first Greek fraternity, — the Phi 

Beta Kappa, — the parent of both secret 
otiier 
schools ^^^ open college fraternity organizations 

of America," was formed at William and 

Mary in 1776. This is another indication of the 

stealthy introduction of principles opposed to 

democracy, and which tend to break existing 

prejudice against the secret organizations of the 

papacy. 

Again, * * Yale, also, though nominally on a 

Congregational foundation, received aid (1792) 

from the state, and gave place in her corporation 

to state representatives." Educational apostasy 

was beginning; religious decline must follow. 



STATE SUPPORT ASKED 3 1 1 

Boone gives another paragraph, which, 

in a few words, tells a story of much 
ask state 
support significance, more, perhaps, than the 

author realized; for he was merely chron- 
icling the history of education, not searching for 
the philosophy thereof. He says, ' ' The college, 
once an appendage to the church, was seen, in 
view of imminent state dangers, to have an equal 
value to the Commonwealth." This, of course, 
is true, because the Commonwealth depended for 
support, for very existence, upon the educational 
ideas propagated in its schools. But the writer 
continues: "First encouraged because it provided 
an educated ministry, there was coming to be 
recognized an opinion, despite the deficiencies in 
culture, that education is something more — that 
it has a value in itself; that schools might well be 
maintained apart from the church as an organi- 
zation, and in no way lessen their usefulness."^ 
Here was the challenge. 

Education ^^^ ^^^ placed in the hands of his 
belongs church the right and privilege to educate 
to the the young. In doing this, he has done 

^ """^ more; for in educating the youth, the 

church stands at God's right hand to guide the 

•*« Education in the United States," pages 76, 77. 



312 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

nation into paths of rectitude. Not by joining 

hands can this be done, for church and state must, 

in order each to be free, be forever separate. Still 

the pillar upon which the nation must stand, the 

only one upon which it can stand, is a true system 

of education, -and this is a divine gift to the church, 

which was born of the Reformation. 

Church ^^ ^^ Lutheran Church the message 

falls in of education was preached by Luther. 

educa- The Episcopal Church received this 

^^^ **word and grace of God," as Luther 

work . , . 

expresses it; but it passed from them, 

and they returned to scholasticism. Oxford, Cam- 
bridge, Eton, Rugby, all English schools testify to 
this. The message passed on to the Congrega- 
tional Church, and Harvard, Yale, and others 
started on the right road, but through the glories 
of the world lost sight of their original object. 
Harvard, founded to educate ministers, sent forth 
in the year 1896, out of a class of four hundred 
graduates only six ministers. The Presbyterian 
Church had its opportunity, and likewise the Bap- 
tist and the Methodist. Rapidly education, the 
scepter with which America was to be ruled, was 
slipping from the churches, * * Of the four colleges 



CHURCH FAILS IN EDUCATION 313 

established during the war, two were non-secta- 
rian, as were three fourths of the sixteen colleges 
founded in the twenty years after 1776." 

A momentous time was reached. Not only 
were the colonies to organize a government which 
would astonish the world, but the people of these 
colonies were on the verge of an educational preci- 
pice, and mighty interests were hanging in the 
balance. 

We have seen that from the classical 

academies came forth the minds which, 
o« the ^ 

classics ^ generation or two, bore sway while 

the nation passed its critical period. 
There were the Adamses and Jefferson, Franklin, 
Webster, De Witt CHnton, Horace Mann, Joseph 
Henry, Everett, and Story; Guilford, of Ohio; 
Grime, of South Carolina; Frelinghuysen, of New 
Jersey; Way land, in Rhode Island; and Shaw, in 
Virginia; besides Kent, Clay, Marshall, and Ran- 
dolph, who were, many of them, not only solving 
political problems, but exerting an influence in the 
school systems planned for their several States. 

Many of these were classical academy men, and 
we can but see that the education received in these 
schools must affect the systems they would father 



314 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

in their several States. Had the colleges remained 
true to their trust with Christian education, the 
academies would have been preparatory schools 
for Christian colleges, and men sent forth from 
their walls would have been firmly grounded in the 
principles of Christian education, going forth into 
every State of the Union to found Christian schools 
which would in their turn make earnest and 
valiant youth, true to Protestantism and true to 
republicanism. 

When the church fails to educate, men 
TURN TO the state. These men ''differed in 
their views about the Constitution, and wrangled 
over the dangers of centralization; the best men 
were fearful of the inroads of slavery and the 
dangers to commerce," says Boone, **but all 
agreed that intelligence was necessary to citizen- 
ship." Washington said, ''In proportion as the 
structure of a government gives force to public 
opinion, it is necessary that public opinion should 
be enlightened," and Jefferson urged that "the 
diffusion of light and education are the resources 
most to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, 
promoting the virtue, and advancing the happiness 
of man." 



MEN TURN TO THE STATE 315 

There is a demand for the highest and most 
practical kind of education. Statesmen see that 
statesmen, citizens^ are needed. The denomina- 
tional colleges ceased to educate Christians, and 
citizens must be educated elsewhere. **In 1805 
the Public School Society, of New York City, was 
formed; the claims of public primary education 
were urged in Boston in 1818; and New York pro- 
vided for the county supervision of schools. Early 
in the nineteenth century were either introduced or 
else discussed the first high schools, manual train- 
ing schools, and mechanics' institutes, teachers' 
associations, teachers' pubUcations, professional 
schools, and free public libraries. 

We have entered the third period. 



XV 

AMERICA AND THE EDUCATIONAL 
PROBLEM (Continued) 

III. The Nineteenth Century 

The problem of elementary preparatory educa- 
tion fell from the hands of the churches, and was 
taken up by the state. What is the character of 
that education which the state can rightfully sup- 
port ? A momentous question indeed; but before 
considering it, let us investigate the schools that 
the state has organized, and which it did, and still 
does, support. There was an urgent demand for 
liberal education, and several States appropriated 
lands toward a school fund. As early as 1786 
' * New York State set apart two lots in each 
township of the unoccupied lands, for * gospel 
and school purposes,'" and by a vote of about 
eighteen hundred, devoted the proceeds of half 
a million acres of vacant lands to the support of 
the common schools. Other States followed the 
same general plan, some in rapid succession, 
316 



HORACE MANN 317 

others more slowly. One thing was a settled 
fact, — the education of the common people, passed 
over by the churcheSy had been taken up by the 
government. 

Horace Under those circumstances it is not 
Mann and surprising that in 1837, Horace Mann, 
the public president of the Massachusetts Senate, 
interested himself in the subject of edu- 
cation. Of this man it is said, ' * Rarely have 
great ability, unselfish devotion, and brilHant suc- 
cess been so united in the course of a single life. ' ' 
This man became the father of the public-school 
system of the United States, and began a work 
which long before should have been started by the 
popular churches of America. But it was neglected 
by them, and it will be profitable for us to watch 
the development of the grandest system of schools 
ever organized, — a system which, if the subject of 
Christian education could be dropped, and it be 
viewed alone from the standpoint of the politician, 
has brought the United States into prominence as 
an educational center among the nations of the 
world. However, since republicanism rests in the 
bosom of Protestantism, and Protestantism is 
cradled in Christian education, the moment the 



3i8 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

feature of Christian education is laid aside, and the 
system purports to be civil (but in fact it is never 
really that), that moment it loses its real vitality 
and genuine strength. But to return to Mr. 
Mann and his wonderful work. 
The Boone says: " The gnarls of a century's 

churches growth were to be smoothed; not all 
and public of the large number of private schools 
^^ ®^ ^ were in accord with the new movement, 
and the churches were naturally watchful of the 
encroachments of unsectarian education."^ This 
expression describes the sectarian schools as in 
much the same attitude as that assumed by the 
weakening Christian church about the days of Con- 
stantine; and as the church of those days held out 
its hands to a stronger power for aid, and because 
it had lost its individual supply of strength, — the 
Spirit of God, — so now these sectarian schools 
watched with a jealous eye the progress of un- 
sectarian schools, and, unable to hold their former 
and their allotted position by virtue of inherent 
strength, they reached out their hands to the state 
coffers, and received aid. Yale did it before the 
days of Horace Mann; many others have done it 
since. 

1" Education in the United States," page 104. 



MANN AND BERNARD 319 

Boone continues: *' Incompetent teach- 

ments ers were fearful, politicians carped, and 

made by general conservatism hindered" by the 

Horace advances of Mr. Mann. ' * Much was 
Mann ,. , , , . , . 1 

to be accomplished, also, withm the 

school. Teachers had to be improved, interest 
awakened, methods rationalized, and the whole 
adjusted to the available resources. Moreover, 
school architecture had to be studied. All this 
Mr. Mann did." How great was the opportunity 
which the religious sects of America had missed! 
Some of the things which were accomplished in 
the next few years are thus reported: **A system 
of normal schools was originated. The annual 
appropriation for schools was doubled; two mil- 
lion dollars expended on houses and furniture; 
the number of women teachers increased; insti- 
tutes introduced and systematized; school libraries 
multiplied; education provided for the dependent, 
and young offending classes, and the first com- 
pulsory school law of the State enacted." 

Henry Bernard, a young lawyer of Con- 

^"""^ necticut, did for his State a work similar 
Bernard 

to that of Horace Mann in Massachussett. 

He was a man of keen insight, and struck at the 



320 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

root of many evils. Finding that public money 
was misapplied, and many primary children neg- 
lected, he went about to work a reform. ' * Teach- 
ers were awakened, associations for mutual 
improvement were formed. . . . He established 
an educational periodical," wholly at his own ex- 
pense. In 1843 this strong-hearted, level-headed 
man was called by the State of Rhode Island to 
straighten out the tangles in her educational sys- 
tem. From this beginning has grown the public 
school system as seen to-day. It is interwoven in 
the meshes of our national history from Boston to 
San Francisco, and from St. Paul to New Orleans. 

The colleges had made necessary the 
J. academies — classical preparatory schools; 

and these sent forth men who modeled 
the high schools after the academic course. The 
Christian colleges set the pace to begin with; then, 
finding themselves outrun in the race, to meet the 
needs, the nineteenth century sees a gradual but 
none the less decided change in their courses of 
instruction. Here are a few of the changes, with 
the reasons for them. Says Boone: — 

' * The current and recent magnifying of the 
humanities, the growing recognition of an altruistic 



REACTION IN COLLEGES 321 

and co-operative spirit in civil and social and polit- 
ical life, the increasing complexity of social forces, 
new aspects of government, the fundamental one- 
ness of all life, and sequent idea of the solidarity 
of human society, have created for the student new 
lines of investigation. " ^ 

How true ! How wide the separation between 
the ideal held before the early Harvard and that 
of the Harvard of to-day. * * The sequent idea of 
the solidarity of human society " as a new line of 
investigation for students, seems almost like mock- 
ery when we see the fundamental principles of the 
government loosening, and ready to crumble on the 
application of some unexpected force. 

The same departure from the study of 

God's Word and the record of his deal- 
changes 

ings with men and nations — God in his- 
tory and politics — is noticeable in the curriculum 
of each modern college and university. To quote 
again from Boone, "The history of customs and 
institutions, the growth of opinions and sentiments 
as crystallized in social forms, the study of govern- 
ments and religions, of art and industry, are clam- 
oring for a place in the curriculum. Comparative 
philology, with the enlarged interest of modern 

2 «' Education in the United States," pages 158, 159. 
21 



322 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

languages, belongs to the present period." Such 
a curriculum can not but have weight in molding 
the minds of men, and the history we are making 
to-day is but the resultant of the thoughts incul- 
cated in our modern colleges. 

The chair in science has been greatly 
Evolution , 1 , . 1 , , . , 

. enlarged : the ideas of evolution as ad- 

vocated by Darwin, Huxley, and Dana 
have crept into the lecture courses, and having 
been received, bid fair to stay. Says Boone: 
* * It has been said that biological study [in the 
universities] began with Huxley in England, and 
later in this country." "Of the several courses 
in Harvard, thirty per cent are in science, and in 
most other contemporary institutions a similar 
large ratio obtains. This has had its influence 
upon the accepted curriculum." This science 
would be termed by the Apostle Paul ** science 
falsely so called." 

* ' Great changes have occurred in the 
nultlplica- ^ . ^^^-, . 

- twenty years [since i868] in the mul- 

courses tiplication of courses and the accom- 
panying specializations of study." 
Perhaps figures will be more impressive on this 
point than mere words. Boone states that * * of 



EVOLUTION TAUGHT 323 

the forty-seven higher institutions whose reports 
are given by Dr. Adams, including Harvard, 
Columbia, and Brown, and ten leading State 
universities, forty-six report an aggregate of one 
hundred and eighty -nine courses in history and 
closely related studies." Cornell now offers so 
many courses that should a student attempt to 
take them all, it would require more than the 
natural life of a man to complete them. 
A cram- ^* ^^ ^*^^ ^\^!ti any spirit of condem- 
mingsys> nation that these things are stated, 
tem with but it can be seen by all that there 
^ ''®" is a meaning which inevitably attaches 
to these changes. The multiplicity of subjects 
taught has led to a wonderful book study, and 
a student's whole life is spent in an attempt 
to put into his own head the thoughts which 
others have written for him. The spirit of the 
universities was caught by the academies, and by 
the high schools, and is reflected even in the 
lower grades. It is the beginning of the cram- 
ming process now so forcibly denounced by a 
few true educators. Readers of our magazines 
are familiar with the ideas expressed by Mrs. 
Lew Wallace in ''The Murder of the Modern 



324 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

Innocents," by the editor of the Ladies' Home 
Journal^ and others. I deem it sufficient to 
quote from Mr. Edward Bok, who startled 
American homes by stating that *'in five cities 
of our country alone there were, during the 
last school term, over sixteen thousand chil- 
dren between the ages of eight and fourteen 
taken out of the public schools because their 
nervous systems were wrecked, and their minds 
were incapable of going on any farther in the 
infernal cramming system which exists to-day in 
our schools. ... It was planned by nature 
that between the years of seven and fifteen 
the child should have rest, — not rest which 
will stop all mental and physical growth, of 
course, . . . but the child's pace should be 
checked so as to allow him to recover from 
the strain which his system has just undergone. 
' ' But what really happens to the child at the 
age of seven } Is he given this period of rest } — 
Verily, no! He enters the schoolroom, and be- 
comes a victim of long hours of confinement — the 
first mental application, mind you, that the child 
has ever known. The nervous wear and tear 
begins; the child is fairly launched upon his en- 



BOK ON CRAMMING 325 

joyment (God save the mark!) of the great educa- 
tional system of America. . . . Special systems of 
* marks, ' which amount to prizes, are started, serv- 
ing only to stimulate the preternaturally bright 
child, who needs relaxation most of all, and to 
discourage the child who happens to be below the 
average of intelligence. It is cramming, cram- 
ming, cramming! A certain amount of 'ground 
must be gone over,' as it is usually called. 
Whether the child is physically able to work the 
ground, does not enter into the question. And we 
do not stop even there! The poor children are 
compelled to carry home a pile of books to study, 
usually after supper, and just before going to bed, 
and that is about the most barbarous part of the 
whole system." ^ 

This is enough to show that the system is recog- 
nized as practicing methods not in accordance 
with the laws of nature, which are the laws of 
God. Such methods are the result of the system 
at the head of which stand the colleges and uni- 
versities which outhne the work for all below 
them. 

Parents read these statements with wonder and 
a feeling of horror, but only a few realize that the 

3 Ladies'' Home Journal, January, 1900. 



326 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

primary schools and the grammar schools, and 
even the high schools, are responsible for the 
health-destroying, brain-benumbing methods em- 
ployed in our public schools. The cause for the 
present system and methods is to be searched for 
in the changes which time has wrought in those 
simple schools planted by the freedom-seeking 
Puritan fathers. Say, rather, that Protestantism 
offered a system of Christian education which, if 
it had been followed, would have prevented what 
we find to-day. 

It is gratifying to find that the decline 

has not proceeded undisturbed. Its his- 
reformers ^ 

tory has not sped on as a smooth-flow- 
ing river. From time to time men have arisen 
offering educational ideas in advance of the age in 
which they taught. Such men were Comenius 
and Pestalozzi, who introduced object-study in 
place of the time-honored memory work; and 
Froebel, whose patient labors for the children of 
the kindergarten have not only endeared him to 
the heart of the true teacher, but have made him a 
benefactor of mankind in that he aroused queries 
in regard to the methods of instructing the human 
mind. These men, searching for truth, caught 



MODERN REFORMERS 327 

glimpses of the principles of true education as 
taught by Christ. Disciples of these men, instead 
of taking from them a borrowed light, have the 
privilege of going again to the source of true wis- 
dom, — "the Teacher come from God." Here is 
the secret of success for educational reformers of 
the twentieth century. 

The tide has kept up a constant ebb 

and flow. When the tendency was 
modern 
education growing strong toward the classics, 

natural science revived, and the spirit of 
investigation broke the band which memory work 
was weaving. Science, not content with lawful 
fields of exploration, is now delving into meta- 
physics, and sending to the world a race of skeptics 
and infidels; or, if professed Christians, students 
are confirmed evolutionists, casting aside the Word 
of God for the theories of geology, astronomy, 
or biology. The narrow cramming system of 
memory-teaching was killing the intellectual life 
of the children, when nature-study was introduced. 
This was an improvement indeed, for these studies 
are thought-producing; but here the tide set in 
the opposite direction, and faith in a Creator is 
destroyed. 



328 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

As OF Jerusalem, so now of the churches, 

THEY ARE DESTROYED BECAUSE THE EDUCATION OF 

THE CHILDREN IS NEGLECTED. Wherein lies the 
safety of the Christian parent and his child ? 
The child has a right to a Christian education. 
Where is it to be obtained } Can the state give 
it.? — It could not if it would. Are the Protes- 
tant churches educating their own children .? Few 
indeed are the Christian schools, and to-day the 
churches are reaping the result of their long period 
of retrogression. The words of Dr. James M. 
Buckley, editor of the Christian Advocate, the 
leading organ of Methodism, voice the general 
sentiment. He says in part : — 

*'That the Methodist Episcopal Church, with 
nearly three million of communicants and a vast 
army of Sunday-school scholars, should add less 
than seven thousand to its membership in 1899, is 
startling. That in the same period it should show 
a decline of 28, 595 in those avowed and accepted 
candidates known as probationers, is ominous. 
Such a situation has not been frequent in our 
history. ... No reverent person can charge the 
decline to God the Father Almighty, to Jesus 
Christ his only Son our Lord, or to the Holy 



ELECTIVE SYSTEM 329 

Ghost, in whom the church ceaselessly declares 
its beHef. It must therefore lie at the doors of 
every church." * 

This statement is very true; and yet, while 
exonerating God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit from 
any blame in the matter, it is sad to note that 
prominent men in the ministry fail to see that the 
churches are losing their hold upon humanity 
because they have relinquished their right as 
Protestants to educate the children. The churches 
are to be pitied; but there is only one remedy, 
and that church which takes up its neglected 
duty in education will receive the reward. To the 
students of prophecy it is a significant fact that 
this state of affairs has been growing deplor- 
ably worse since about the year 1843 ^r 1844. 
The fluctuations which have occurred in 

^^^ ^ the curricula of our leading schools has 
elective 

system been referred to before, but is empha- 
sized by a glance at the introduction of 
the elective courses. When the course of instruc- 
tion became decidedly complex, requiring years 
for completion, and the multiplication of subjects 
made it impracticable for the majority of students 
to complete the course as outlined, there arose 

* The Christian Advocate^ February, 1900, 



330 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

the privilege of option in the choice of the studies 
in many courses. This was also made necessary 
in the colleges by the organization of many tech- 
nical schools throughout the land. **The early 
efforts to establish mechanics and manual-labor 
institutes are interesting as marking a reaction 
against the dominance of language and metaphys- 
ics, and an ingenious appeal for the large recogni- 
tion of the physicial sciences." This has led in 
some cases to the substitution of German or some 
other modern language, and an increased amount 
of mathematics in place of the classics, the stu- 
dents being free to choose. 

This spirit of freedom, which has been 

ree om almost wrenched, one might say, from 
of Virginia , , . . . 7 , . , \ 

Uni ersit ^^^Y ^^ ^"^ mstitutions of higher learn- 
ing, is occasionally found to have swayed 
the hearts of earlier educators. One reads with 
keen relish the history of the founding of the 
University of Virginia, the moving spirit of which 
was Thomas Jefferson. The reader will be inter- 
ested in a paragraph by Boone: — 

'*As early as 1779, while the 'Old Dominion,' 
with her sister States, was embroiled in a doubtful 
war; and again in 18 14, after numerous defeats 



VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY 331 

and constant opposition from the already-estab- 
lished William and Mary College, from the Prot- 
estant churches, and from most of the political 
leaders of the time, Mr. Jefferson and his friends 
sought to provide for the state, along with the 
general system of education, a university, in which 
should be taught in the highest degree, * every 
branch of knowledge, whether calculated to en- 
rich, stimulate, and adorn the understanding, or to 
be useful in the arts and practical business of life. ' 
Five years later (1819) an act of the Assembly 
was obtained establishing the University of Vir- 
ginia. W^hen six years later it was opened, after 
a wide acquaintance and careful study of the 
most progressive institutions in the United States, 
it was found that in discipHne and instruction, 
in constitution and means, it very materially dif- 
fered from them all."^ 

The far-reachinff sie:ht of the chief pro- 
Freedom *^ ^ ^ 

from other moter of the enterprise is seen when we 

objection- note wherein lay this very material dif- 

" ference. ''There is one practice," wrote 
tures 

Mr. Jefferson, ' ' from which we shall cer- 
tainly vary, although it has been copied by nearly 
every college and academy in the United States; 

6 "Education in the United States," page 190. 



332 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

that is, the holding of the students all to one pre- 
scribed course of reading, and disallowing exclu- 
sive application to those branches only which are 
to qualify them for the particular vocation to which 
they are destined. We shall, on the contrary, 
allow them uncontrolled choice in the lectures they 
shall choose to attend, and require elementary 
qualifications only, and sufficient age."^ 

This was a wonderful step for the time in which 
it occurred, and indicates the direction given to 
minds of men by the Spirit of God. The greater 
freedom occasioned by the adoption of the elective 
system is felt throughout the educational centers of 
our land. Johns Hopkins University grants the 
degree of B. A. in four out of six of its courses 
without the classics. This leads us, however, to 
a consideration of the question suggested several 
pages back. What subjects can of right be taught 
in schools supported from the public funds f 

Education, pure and simple, in the 
Should the ' ^ ^ ' 

state sup- breadth of its meaning, is character de- 
port the velopment. The state, as such, can not 
school judge of motives, hence it can not edu- 
cate the inner man. The two phases of the 
Reformation were Protestantism and republican- 

6 Idem, 



SUPPORT OF SCHOOLS 333 

ism; the first deals with the spiritual nature, and 
through this reaches the entire man, making a 
symmetrical character; the governmental part 
deals only with the mental and physical — the out- 
ward manifestations. To the church was committed 
the charge of the spiritual man, and the commis- 
sion to ** teach all nations" given to the little 
company that watched the ascending Lord, was 
repeated to the church in the sixteenth century; 
and with especial weight was this burden laid upon 
the shoulders of American men and women. The 
state needs men to carry forward its pursuits; and 
for the purely secular training of such individuals, 
it has a perfect right, even a duty, to provide from 
the common fund. A purely mechanical, secular, 
or business course might therefore be offered in 
our state schools; but with such an education few 
parents are contented. The moral nature needs 
training; in order to be good citizens, it is argued, 
some part of the system of ethics which is based 
on the doctrines of Christ must be inculcated. 
Christian schools, and those only, can give a spir- 
itual education. This is the dilemma in which the 
educational system found itself about the time of 
the Revolution, and the matter, instead of reach- 



334 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

ing a satisfactory solution, has grown steadily 
worse. The churches failed to provide for the 
Christian training; and the state felt that some- 
thing must be done for the children. Public 
schools were established; but these, by right, can 
not teach morality or anything pertaining thereto. 
But they do. Hence, the church by her failure has 
forced the state into the attempt to do her work, 
— an impossible task. Again, the churches and 
the denominational schools, not wilUng to be out- 
done by state institutions, have extended their 
stakes and lengthened their cords until they offer, 
not those subjects which are character building, so 
much as those which will enable them to compete 
with state institutions. Here again is a departure 
from Christian education, and a mixture which 
would be hard to designate as other than papal. 
Again, the state sets its seal upon work 

egrees done in institutions which it supports, 
a papal 
mark ^^^ ^^^ Christian schools — those in 

name at least — not only accept public 

money, but allow the state to put its seal to their 

work in the granting of literary degrees and 

diplomas. This is a natural result of the union 

of worldly education and the principles of Chris- 



DEGREES A PAPAL MARK 335 

tian education which we have followed through 

two centuries, and yet to-day there is scarcely a 

school claiming to be Christian in its principles 

that dare raise its voice against the customs of 

its sister institutions. 

^ . ^, * * Render, therefore, unto Caesar the 
Education 

and state things that be Caesar's, and unto God 

unite; the things which be God's," would be 

result, repeated, should the author of those 
papal 1 . . . 

words enter in person the mstitutions 

of learning which claim to bear his name. A 
union of church and state is described as the 
papacy; a union of education (the foundation of 
the church) and the state is passed by with 
scarcely a dissenting voice. 

Educa- ^^ ^^^ ^^ *^^^ chapter, the educational 
tional work of the Catholic Church in the 

work of United States has been passed without 
Catholics ^ word; — not because that organization 
has been less active here than in European coun- 
tries, but because the idea is so prevalent that a 
system of education to be papal must emanate 
from the Roman Church. Ideas to the contrary 
have been emphasized again and again in these 
pages. In our own country we can not fail to see 



336 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

that, aside from the work of the Catholic Church, 
there has been developed a papal system of 
instruction. The stepping-stones from the pres- 
ent back into the dim ages of the past, when 
Egypt or Greece swayed the world through 
science or philosophy, may in places be hidden; 
but the products of Greek philosophy and Egyp- 
tian wisdom, seasoned with the ideas of the medi- 
eval scholasticism, or the more subtle mixture of 
modern Christian education and the papal system 
as exemplified by Sturm, to which is attached the 
State's seal of approval, meet us from season to 
season as our schools send forth their graduates. 
The Catholics, however, have not 

. , watched the e^rowth of our educational 
schools ° 

system without putting forth a vigorous 
effort. From Colonial days, when the Jesuits 
flocked to these shores, and taught the established 
schools and missions, to the present time, when 
the new university for the education of Catholic 
youth is in full operation at our national capital, 
this organization has spared no effort. As Boone 
says, * * All other denominational service in educa- 
tion is partial and irregular compared with the 
comprehensive grasp of the Catholic Church. 



INFLUENCE OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 337 

Their aim is all-inclusive, and assumes no other 
agency. Ignoring the public school, their plan is 
coextensive with their membership. With one 
fifth ot all the theological seminaries, and one 
third of all their students; with one fourth of the 
colleges, nearly six hundred academies, and two 
thousand six hundred parochial schools (elemen- 
tary), instructing more than half a million chil- 
dren, the church is seen to be a force which, 
educationally considered, is equaled by no other 
single agency but the government itself."^ 

The system by which this work is carried for- 
ward is thus described: **The twelve Catholic 
provinces . . . are subdivided into seventy-nine 
dioceses. The latter average from thirty-five to 
forty parishes, each of which is supposed to have 
a school for the elementary training of their chil- 
dren. As a matter of fact, ninety-three per cent 
of them maintain parochial schools, in which are 
educated, generally by the priesthood, . . . the 
511,063 pupils. In addition to these are five 
hundred and eighty-eight academies, usually for 
the girls, and ninety-one colleges." This was 
written six or seven years ago, but the figures 
speak for themselves. With the nation honey- 

7 "Education in the United States," pages 267, 268. 



338 AMERICA AND EDUCATION 

combed by schools which have as their avowed 
object the annihilation of Protestantism and re- 
publicanism; with our own public-school system, 
so grand in many respects, yet compromising 
until it is indeed papain it is not strange that 
Methodist and Presbyterian congregations are be- 
moaning their dwindling numbers. 

Should Protestants educate their own children? 
History speaks in emphatic language, Yes! The 
papacy says, If you wish us to have your chil- 
dren. No! 

"God stands at the door and knocks; blessed 
are we if we open to him." — Luther. 



XVI 

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

After watching the educational struggle which 
has gone on for ages between truth and error, and 
observing that scarcely a century has passed which 
has not witnessed a controversy more or less severe 
between Christian and papal methods of instruc- 
tion, one is prepared to believe that this is a sub- 
ject inseparably connected with the history of 
nations. This being true, we must expect to find 
ourselves in the midst of the controversy to-day. 
It needs but a casual glance at current history to 
confirm this fact; for minds are troubled because of 
existing evils, and hearts are open for educational 
truth. 

If we are inclined to think that the principles of 
Christian education are new and before unheard of, 
we have but to catch the thoughts which have 
swayed true educators from the time of Christ 
to the present day to know that the same spirit 
has been at work in all ages to draw the hearts of 
men to God. 

339 



340 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

Christian '^^^ advent of Christ was a wonderful 
education event. * ' The Word was made flesh, and 
exemplified dwelt among us." That man might be- 
^ *** hold the workings of God in human 
flesh, and see here the manifestation of truth, 
Christ was born. His was pre-eminently a work 
of education, and His system was Christian educa- 
tion. By this means, Heaven again reached earth, 
and clasped it to her bosom. Men, in their short- 
sightedness, were unable to comprehend the spirit- 
ual teachings of the Son of God, and often His 
most powerful lessons fell unappreciated on the 
ears of the multitudes, and even on the ears of 
the apostles. 

Much as the life of Christ has done for 

J the world, there has never been a man, 
Spirit tlie 

teacher ^^ ^ nation of men, who have fully fol- 
lowed his teachings. Error has ever 
been mixed with truth, and the educators of the 
world have failed to see the realization of their 
hopes because of this partial grasp of truth. 

Christ, when rejected by the world, did not 
withdraw entirely, and leave man to his fate; but 
He sent forth His Spirit, the Spirit of Triith as 
an educator, leading minds into truth. This work- 



LATIN AND WORD-STUDY 341 

ing of the Spirit is plainly seen, for one man has 
been directed to one phase of true education, 
while another, perhaps a contemporary worker, or 
perhaps a successor, it may be a fellow country- 
man, or one at a great distance, has picked up 
another thread in the skein, and developed another 
thought for the world. 

True edu- ^^^ world has never long been left with- 
cation out some representative of Christian edu- 
always cation. In attempting to define the term 

*'®P'"®" which stands as the subject of this chap- 
sented . • ,, , , . , 

ter, attention is called to the partial work 

of reform which has been accompHshed by men 
whom the world recognizes as educators. The 
errors of a false education, so prevalent in times 
past, and still recognized as a part of the educa- 
tional systems now in vogue, stand in strong con- 
trast to the correct ideas advocated by these men 
at various times. 

The men whose ideas are given in this 
Latin and ^ 1. , , ^ r . 

word- chapter lived and wrought after the 

study in Reformation; and in order to reveal the 

papal error against which they worked, it is 

®^ °^ ® necessary to consider the methods of 

instruction to be found in papal schools. Similar 



342 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

thoughts are found on previous pages, but, for the 
sake of contrast, they are here repeated. 

Painter says: * * When a young man had acquired a 
thorough mastery of the Latin language for all pur- 
poses; when he was well versed in the theological 
and philosophical opinions of his preceptors; when 
he was skillful in dispute, and could make a bril- 
liant display from the resources of a well-stored 
memory, he had reached the highest points to 
which the Jesuits sought to lead him. Originality 
and independence of mind, love of truth for its 
own sakey the power of reflecting^ and of forming 
correct judgments y were not m^erely neglected, they 
were suppressed in the Jesuits' system." ^ Karl 
Schmidt likewise testifies in the words, '' Books y 
words y had been the subjects of instruction. . . . 
The knowledge of things was wanting. Instead 
of things themselves, words about the things were 
taught.'' '* Learning by doing" is the rule in 
Christian education. A large amount of Latin 
and Greek was, and is still, the rule in the 
papal educational system, and these languages 
were taught, not for the sake of thought, but 
merely for the words. 

* *' History of Education," page 173. 



LATIN AND GREEK 343 

R formers '^^^ world had for a century been bound 
oppose by the study of the classics. This bond- 
mere age was broken by the Reformation, but 

language ^^^ world returned thither again. Mil- 
study 

ton, the poet of the seventeenth century, 

wrote: ''Language is but the instrument convey- 
ing to us things useful to be known. Though a 
linguist should pride himself to have all the tongues 
that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he have not 
studied the solid things in them, as well as the 
words and lexicons, he were nothing so much to be 
esteemed a learned man as any yeoman or trades- 
man competently wise in his mother dialect only. 
. . . We do amiss to spend seven or eight years 
in scraping together so much Latin and Greek as 
might be learned otherwise easily and delightfully 
in one year." ^ 

Thlnss Ratich, a German educator of the six- 
studied teenth century, said: ''Wearein bond- 
instead of age to Latin. The Greeks and Saracens 
anguage ^Q^ld never have done so much for pos- 
terity if they had spent their youth in acquiring a 
foreign tongue. We must study our own language, 
and then the sciences." "Everything first in the 

2 Quoted by Painter, "History of Education," page 191. 



344 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

mother tongue, "and ** nothing on mere authority,' 
were rules in his schoolroom. Comenius, the 
renowned teacher, used to say : * * If so much time 
is to be spent on the language alone, when is the 
boy to know about things, — when will he learn 
philosophy, when religion, and so forth ? He will 
consume his life in preparing for life." 
Mechan- ^^^ exactly this applies to the word- 
ical teach- study of our boys and girls to-day ! It 
Ing is matters not whether it be Latin or Eng- 

papal j^gj^ grammar; indeed, it may be that 

other mode of expression, — some form of mathe- 
matics, — where time and energy are devoted to 
the process merely. A failure to make the devel- 
opment of thought — independent thinking, in 
fact — the main object in instruction, stamps any 
method of teaching as papal, no matter by what 
name it is known, or by whom the subjects are 
taught. It was the life work of Comenius to coun- 
teract this tendency, as the following principles 
show. He insisted that * * nothing should be taught 
that is not of solid utility." ** Nothing is to be 
learned by heart that is not first thoroughly 
understood. " ' ' Theologians and physicians should 
study Greek," ** Doing can be learned only by 



THE OBJECT OF EDUCATION 345 

doing." That educational reformers of to-day are 

advocating these same principles will be seen later. 

This is a part of Christian education. 

Cha acter- J^^^ Locke, an English educator of the 

building seventeenth century, had truth on the 

tlie aim subject of education. Of the languages, 

" """^ he says: '* When I consider what ado is 
education 

made about a little Latm and Greek, 

how many years are spent in it, and what a noise 
and business it makes to no purpose, I can hardly 
forbear thinking that parents of children still live 
in fear of the schoolmaster's rod, which they look 
on as the only instrument of education; as if a 
language or two were its whole business." 

Character was valued by this man, and his state- 
ment as to the relative importance of study is 
valuable to parents and teachers. * * Reading 
and writing and learning I allow to be necessary, 
but yet not the chief business. I imagine you think 
him a very foolish fellow that should not value a 
virtuous or a wise man infinitely before a scholar. 
Not but that I think learning a great help to both, 
in well-disposed minds; but yet it must be con- 
fessed also that in others not so disposed, it helps 
them only to be the more foolish or worse men. 



34^ CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

How Locke * * ^ ^^^ *^^^' *^^* when you consider 
would the breeding of your son, and are look- 
choose a ing out for a schoolmaster, or a tutor, you 
teacher ^^^ould not have, as is usual, Latin and 
logic only in your thoughts. Learning must be 
had, but in the second place, as subservient only to 
greater qualities. Seek out somebody that may 
know how discreetly to frame his manners: place 
him in hands where you may, as much as possible, 
secure his innocence, cherish and nurse up the 
good, and gently correct and weed out any bad 
inclinations, and settle in him good habits. This 
IS THE MAIN point; and this being provided for, 
learning may be had into the bargain." 

To how great an extent are Protestants following 
this excellent advice ? In what schools for Prot- 
estant boys and girls is innocence cherished ? where 
is the good nourished ? where are bad inclinations 
gently weeded out, and good habits settled ? where 
do these things take a position ahead of book 
learning ? 

** Virtue," continues Locke, **as the first and 
most necessary of those endowments that belong 
to a man or gentleman, was based on religion. As 
the foundation of this, there ought very early to be 



A PAPAL METHOD 347 

imprinted on his mind a true notion of God." 
Here one finds a clear conception of Christian 
education, which parents of to-day would do well 
to study. 

The study of the classics, together with 
Cramming ^^^ memory work which was the chief 
a papal , . . r i i- 

^- . characteristic of these studies, was not 
method ' 

the only defect in papal education; hence 
it is not the only error from which educators, led, 
as one must believe, by the spirit of truth, have 
from time to time broken away. The cramming 
system, so justly denounced by thinking minds as 
one of the most far-reaching defects of the present 
school system, is a mark of papal education wher- 
ever it may be found. And probably no generation 
has passed which has not heard some voice lifted 
against this pernicious practice of the schoolroom. 
The God of heaven recognizes that the human 
mind contains the highest possibilities of earth; 
the child is a part of himself; and when wrong 
methods of education are used in dealing with 
developing minds, He, the head of the body, of 
which we are members, feels the hurt; so it is 
that Christian education is an emanation from 
the mind of God. 



34B CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

Montaigne, speaking of education in the six- 
teenth century, said: '*It is the custom of school- 
masters to be eternally thundering in their pupils' 
ears, as if they were pouring into a funnel, while 
the pupils' business is only to repeat what their 
masters have said." He is taught that **a tutor 
. . should, according to the capacity he has to 
deal with, put it [the child's mind] to the test, per- 
mitting his pupil himself to taste and reHsh things, 
and of himself to choose and discern them. . . . 
Too much learning stifles the soul, just as plants 
are stifled by too much moisture, and lamps by too 
much oil. Our pedants plunder knowledge from 
books, and carry it on the tips of their lips, just as 
birds carry seeds to feed their young. . . . We 
toil and labor only to stuff the memory y but leave 
the conscience and understanding unfurnished and 
void,'' 

Twentieth ^^ ^^*^ ^^ January, 1900, Edward Bok, 
century editor of the Ladies' Home Journal^ 
schools wrote concerning the cramming process 
cram ^^ ^^ popular schools: "Do American 

men and women realize that in five cities of our 
country alone there were, during the last school 
term, over sixteen thousand children between the 



SCHOOL PRIZES AND MEDALS 349 

ages of eight and fourteen taken out of the pub- 
lic schools because their nervous systems were 
wrecked, and their minds were incapable of going 
on any further in the infernal cramming system 
which exists to-day in our schools ? . . . Conserv- 
ative medical men who have given their lives to the 
study of children place the number whose health is 
shattered by overstudy at more than 50,000 each 
year. ... It is cramming, cramming, cramming. 
A certain amount of * ground must be gone over, ' as 
it is usually called. Whether the child is physically 
able to work the * ground ' does not enter into the 
question." 

The writer dwells upon the evils of night study, 
and continues: ''True reform always begins at 
the root of all evils, and the root of the evil 
of home study lies in the cramming system." 
M Le ^^^* ^^^ Wallace says: "Go into any 
Wallace public school, and you will see girls 
on cranio pallid as day lilies and boys with flat 
"* °^ chests and the waxen skin that has been 

named the school complexion. Every incentive 
and stimulus is held out; dread of blame, love 
of praise, prizes, medals, badges, the coveted 
flourish in the newspapers — the strain never 



350 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

slackens. . . . The burden is books. The tasks 
imposed on the young are fearful. The effort 
seems to be to make text-books as difficult and 
complicated as possible instead of smoothing the 
hill so high and hard to climb." 

In her characteristic style, Mrs. Wallace con- 
demns the usual methods of teaching arithmetic 
and language : — 

* * Said a mother, * Two and two are what.? ' ' ' 

**The boy hesitated. 

' * * Surely you know that two and two make 
four. ' 

"'Yes, mama; but I am trying to remember 
the process.' 

''Process, indeed! . . . 

"One day Mary was bending over a tablet 
writing words on both sides of a straight line, 
like multiplied numerators and denominators. 

' ' ' What are you at now t ' asked grandma. 

' ' Mary answered with pride, ' I am diagraming. * 

"'In the name of sense, what's diagraming?' 

" ' It 's mental discipline. Miss Cram says I 
have a fine mind that needs developing. Look 
here, grandma, now this is the correct placing of 
elements. Fourscore and seven are joined by the 



MODERN EDUCATION GRIND 351 

word and, a subordinate connective copulative 
conjunction. It modifies years, the attribute of 
the preposition. Ago is a modal verb of past 
time. The root of the first clause is — . 

" 'Why, that's Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg. 
I keep it in my work-basket and know it by heart. ' 

*' 'Indeed! Well, ours is a simple personal — .' 

"'That's enough. If President Lincoln had 
been brought up on such stuff, that speech 
would never have been written. He called a 
noun a noun, and was done with it.'"* 

Montaigne could scarcely have given a more 
vivid description had he seen the grind of mod- 
ern education, where grades are strictly kept, and 
all children, the strong and the tender alike, are 
forced through the same process. There is no 
relief save in dropping by the wayside when 
disease fastens its tendrils on the human frame. 

Against this system all educational reformers 
have striven, but it remains with us still. Chris- 
tian parents, could they see the relative value 
of soul and mental culture, would demand the 
establishment of a new order of things. Christian 
education alone can effect a cure. 

1 " The Murder of the Modern Innocents," Ladies^ Home Journal, 
February, 1900. 



352 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

Nature- Comenius strove to correct this error 

study to by the introduction of nature-study. 

prevent He says: *'The right instruction of 

cratnm ng yQ^^-j^ ^jQ^g ^q^ consist in cramming 

them with a mass of words, phrases, sentences, 
and opinions collected from authors, but in unfold- 
ing the understanding, that many little streams 
may flow therefrom as from a living fountain. 
. , . Why shall we not, instead of dead books, 
open the living book of nature? Not the shad- 
ows of things, but the things themselves, which 
make an impression on the senses and the 
imagination, are to be brought before youth. 
By actual observation, not by a verbal descrip- 
tion of things, must instruction begin. . . . 
Men must be led as far as possible to draw 
their wisdom, not from books, but from a con- 
sideration of heaven and earth, oaks and beeches; 
that is, they must know and examine things 
themselves, and not simply be contented with the 
observations and testimony of others." 

His fundamental principles were, * ' Education is 
a development of the whole man," and ''Many 
studies are to be avoided as dissipating the mental 
strength." 



MODERN SCIENCE AND DOUBT 353 

Modern ^ ^^^^ stride was taken by Comenius 
science toward breaking the mechanical teach- 
studyand ing of the papacy. The error into which 
doubt j^jg followers fall is in making nature 

the all in all, failing to recognize the Word of 
God as the only guide and interpreter of natural 
phenomena. This mistake has led modern schools 
to take the position in science studies which is 
described in the following words by Frank S. Hoff- 
man, professor of philosophy in one of America's 
leading theological schools: ** Every man, be- 
cause he is a man, is endowed with powers for 
forming judgments, and he is placed in this world 
to develop and apply those powers to all the 
objects with which he comes in contact."^ In 
such words does he plainly state that human reason 
is the means by which man is to obtain his wis- 
dom. Then follows his explanation of the method 
of procedure when reason has been thus exalted. 
These are his words: *' In every sphere of investi- 
gation he [man] should begin with doubt, and 
the student will make the most rapid progress who 

has acquired THE ART OF DOUBTING V^ELL. 

Suppose, now, that the subject under con- 
sideration is some newly discovered natural phe- 

* North American Review^ April, 1900. 
23 



354 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

nomenon, and the student of nature wishes to 
investigate. According to Professor Hoffman, a 
modern theologian, and hence a teacher, he must 
• * begin with doubt, and the student will make the 
most rapid progress who has acquired the art of 
doubting well." Christian education, in contrast 
with this method, says, ''Through faith we 
understand." 

Methods In ''^^^^ this method of study — to begin 
Sciences with doubt — is not only applicable to 
and the natural sciences, but to the study 

theology Qf spiritual truths also. Professor Hoff- 
man continues: ''We ask that every student of 
theology take up the subject precisely as he would 
any other science: that he begin with doubt ^ and 
carefully weigh the arguments for every doctrine, 
accepting or rejecting each assertion according as 
the balance of probabilities is for or against it. 
. . . We believe that even the teachings of Jesus 
should be viewed from this standpoint, and should 
be accepted or rejected on the ground of their 
inherent reasonableness." 

Thus the spirit of doubt with which the child 
is taught to study nature, goes with him through 
all his school years; it grows with his growth; 



DOUBT IS SOCRATIC 355 

and if he enters a theological school to prepare 
for the ministry, he is confronted by the same 
method in the investigation of the teachings of 
Christ. What wonder that the results of modern 
education are a class of infidels and skeptics ? 

The words of President Harper, of Chicago 
University, are worth repeating: *^It is difficult 
to prophesy what the results of our present 
method of educating the youth will be in fifty 
years. We are training the mind in the public 
schools, but the moral side in the child's nature is 
almost entirely neglected." Not only is it neglected, 
but faith is trampled to the ground, and human 
reason exalted above its prostrate form. ** When 
the Son of man come thy shall he find faith on the 
earth f " A pertinent question, indeed, for educa- 
tors to answer. 

Yj^^ This method of doubting is papal, and 

method of can be traced directly to Socrates, the 
••doubt" Greek. Of him, we read: "Socrates 
is Socratic ^^^ ^^^ ^ , philosopher, ' nor yet a 
* teacher, ' but rather an * educator, ' having for his 
function * to rouse, persuade, and rebuke. . . . 
Socrates' theory of education had for its basis a 

PROFOUND AND CONSISTENT CONCEPTION."* 
3 " Encyclopedia Britannica," Art. Socrates. 



356 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

In dealing with his students, the same authority 
thus states his method of procedure: '' Taking his 
departure from some apparently remote principle 
or proposition to which the respondent yielded a 
ready assent, Socrates would draw from it an 
unexpected but undeniable consequence which was 
plainly inconsistent with the opinion impugned. 
In this way he brought his interlocutor to pass 
judgment upon himself, and reduced him to a state 
of doubt or perplexity. ' Before I ever met you,' 
says Meno, in a dialogue which Plato called by his 
name, * I was told that you spent your time hi 
doubting and leading others to doubt: and it is 
a fact that your witcheries and spells have brought 
me to that condition; you are like the torpedo; 
as it benumbs anyone who approaches and touches 
it, so do you.' " 

We can readily trace the connection between 
the Socratic method of doubting and the same 
method .as advocated by the professor of the 
theological school, for ''his [Socrates's] practice 
led to the Platonic revival, " and the Platonic 
system of education and its introduction in modern 
schools has been too thoroughly discussed in pre- 
vious pages to need repetition here. 



DOUBT AND MODERN SCHOOLS 35; 

«« Doubt" '^^^ Socratic method of teaching — the 
taught In development of doubt — seems to char- 
modern acterize much of the teaching of to-day, 
8c 0015 •£ ^g ^^^ judge from an article which 
appeared in the Outlook, written by the editor, 
Lyman Abbott. The educational work is thus 
described : — 

*'The educational processes of our time — 
possibly of all time — are largely analytical and 
critical. They consist chiefly in analyzing the 
subjects brought to the student for examination, 
separating them into their constituent parts, con- 
sidering how they have been put together, and 
sitting in judgment on the finished fabric or on 
the process by which it has been constructed. 

* ' Thus all, or nearly all, study is analytical, 
critical, — a process of inquiry and investigation. 
The process presupposes an inquiring if not a 
skeptical mood. Doubt is the pedagogue which 
leads the pupil to knowledge. 

**Does he study the hunian body.^ — Dissection 
and anatomy are the foundations of his study. 
Chemistry.'' — The laboratory furnishes him the 
means of analysis and inquiry into physical sub- 
stances. History.^ — He questions the statements 



358 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

which have been unquestioned heretofore, ran- 
sacks libraries for authorities in ancient volumes 
and more ancient documents. Literature? — The 
poem v^hich he read only to enjoy he now sub- 
jects to the scalpel, inquires whether it really is 
beautiful, why it is beautiful, how its meter should 
be classified, how its figures have been constructed. 
Philosophy? — He subjects his own consciousness 
to a process of vivisection in an endeavor to ascer- 
tain the physiology and anatomy of the human 
spirit; brings his soul into the laboratory that he 
may learn its chemical constituents. 

* * Meanwhile the constructive and synthetic proc- 
ess is relegated to a second place, or lost sight 
of altogether. Does he study medicine? — He 
gives more attention to diagnosis than to thera- 
peutics; to the analysis of disease than to the 
problem how to overcome it. Law ? — He spends 
more time in analyzing cases than in developing 
power to grasp great principles and apply them 
in the administration of justice to varying condi- 
tions. The classics ? — It is strange if he has not 
at graduation spent more weeks in the syntax 
and grammar of the language than he has spent 
hours in acquiring and appreciating the thought 



LYMAN ABBOTT ON DOUBT 359 

and the spirit of the great classic authors. It 
has been well and truly said of the modern stu- 
dent that he does not study grammar to under- 
stand Homer, he reads Homer to get the Greek 
grammar. His historical study has given him 
dates, events, a mental historical chart; perhaps, 
too, it has given him a scholar's power to dis- 
criminate between the true and the false, the 
historical and the mythical in ancient legends: 
but not to many has it given an understanding 
of the significance of events, a comprehension of, 
or even new light upon, the real meaning of the 
life of man on the earth. Has he been studying 
philosophy.? — Happy he is if, as a result of his 
analysis of self-consciousness, he has not become 
morbid respecting his own inner life, or cynically 
skeptical concerning the inner life of others. 

"It is doubtless in the realm of ethics and 
religion that the disastrous results of a too ex- 
clusive analytical process and a too exclusive crit- 
ical spirit are seen. Carrying the same spirit, 
applying the same methods, to the investigation 
of religion, the Bible becomes to him simply a 
collection of ancient literature, whose sources, 
structure, and forms he studies, whose spirit, he, 



360 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

at least for the time, forgets; worship is a ritual 
whose origin, rise, and development he inves- 
tigates; whose real significance as an expression 
of penitence, gratitude, and consecration he loses 
sight of altogether. Faith is a series of tenets 
whose biological development he traces; or a 
form of consciousness whose relation to brain 
action he inquires into; or whose growth by evo- 
lutionary processes out of earlier states he en- 
deavors to retrace. 

' ' Vivisection is almost sure sooner or later to 
become a post-mortem; and the subject of it, 
whether it be a flower, a body, an author, or an 
experience, generally dies under the scalpel. It 
is for this reason that so many students in school, 
academy, and college lose not merely their the- 
ology, which is perhaps no great loss, but their 
religion, which is an irreparable loss, while they 
are acquiring an education."* 

This spirit of doubt characterizes the 
Ministers 
accept teachings of modern higher critics. The 

Socratic critical study of the Bible, Dr. Newton 

reasoning tells us, "has disposed forever of the 

claim that it is such an oracle of God as we can 

^ Outlook^ April 21, 1900. 



MINISTERS AND SOCRATIC REASONING 361 

submit our intellects to unquestioningly. " "Dr. 
Briggs says that there are three co-ordinate 
authorities — the church, the Bible, and reason. 
' But when they disagree, which is to be the final 
court of appeal ? ' asks Dr. Newton. * They do 
disagree widely to-day.' Dr. Newton believes 
that the ultimate court of appeal is reason, — not 
the reason of Thomas Paine and the present-day 
realistic rationalists, but rather the ' Divine Rea- 
son ' of Socrates and of Plato. . . . Reason in this 
sense means not merely or chiefly the rationalizing 
faculty, but the moral nature — the whole spiritual 
being of man. ' It is what conscience teaches, as 
well as what intellect affirms, that, together with 
the voice of the heart, forms the trinity of true 
authority — of reason.' " ^ 

This is indeed the exaltation of reason. There 
is, in such a system, no room whatever for faith. 
W. T. Harris, United States Commis- 
sioner of Education, writing of Sunday- 
and reli- schools, attributes their decline to the 
glous adoption, by Sunday-school teachers, of 

truths ^YiQ methods employed in the secular 
schools. A few words from him will suffice. He 

^Literary Digest^ May 26, 1900. 



362 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

says : * * With the spectacle of the systematic organ- 
ization of the secular schools and the improvement 
of methods of teaching before them, the leaders in 
the church have endeavored to perfect the methods 
of the religious instruction of youth. They have 
met the following dangers which lay in their path; 
namely, first, the danger of adopting methods of in- 
struction in religion which were fit and proper only 
for secular instruction ; second, the selection of reli- 
gious matter for the course of study which did not 
lead in a most direct manner toward vital religion, 
although it would readily take on a pedagogic 
form."^ 

In order to show the reason why methods which 
are perfectly proper in giving secular education 
are not adapted to religious instruction, Mr. Har- 
ris explains: "The secular school gives positive 
instruction. It teaches mathematics, natural sci- 
ence, history, and language. Knowledge of the 
facts can be precise and accurate, and a similar 
knowledge of the principles can be arrived at. 
The self-activity of the pupil is . . . demanded 
by the teacher of the secular school. The pupil 
must not take things on authority, but must test 
and verify. . . . He must trace out the mathe- 
* Report for 1896-97, vol. i , Introduction. 



HARRIS ON EDUCATION 363 

matical demonstrations. ... He must learn the 
method of investigating facts. . . . The spirit of 
the secular school therefore comes to be an en- 
lightening one, although not of the highest order." 
The whole tendency of secular education, ac- 
cording to Mr. Harris, is to develop a spirit of 
investigation and proof. This, he says, is a means 
of enlightening, but not of the highest order. The 
highest means of enlightening the mind is by faith. 
That is God's method. Christian schools must 
avoid the secular methods of instruction, adopting 
in their stead that highest form of enlightening, — 
faith. That separates Christian schools from secu- 
lar schools in methods as well as in the subject 
matter taught. 

Secular ^^^^ secular method of investigation 
methods saps the spiritual life, and is responsible 
require for the decline in modern Protestantism. 

material j^j. Harris continues: '* Religious edu- 
proof 

cation, it is obvious in giving the highest 

results of thought and life to the young, must cling 
to the form of authority, and not attempt to bor- 
row the methods of mathematics, science, and 
history from the secular school. Such borrowing 
will result only in giving* the young people an over- 



364 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

weening confidence in the finality of their own 
immature judgments. They will become conceited 
and shallow-minded. . . . Against this danger of 
sapping or undermining all authority in religion by 
the introduction of the methods of the secular 
school which lay stress on the self-activity of the 
child, the Sunday-school has not been sufficiently 
protected in the more recent years of its history." 

If the adoption of secular methods of teaching in 
the Sunday-school, where children are instructed 
one day only in the week, has so weakened Prot- 
estantism, what must be the result when children 
are daily taught in the public schools by methods 
v/hich tend always to exalt human reason above 
faith. It is little wonder that five days' instruc- 
tion can not be counteracted by the very best 
Sabbath instruction even in those schools which 
have not adopted secular methods in teaching 
the Bible. 

Protestants should learn from this that in start- 
ing Christian schools the methods followed in the 
secular schools can not be adopted. Here is the 
stumbling-block over which many are apt to fall. 
Religious instruction demands methods of teaching 
which will develop faith. 



COMENIUS'S SCHOOL 365 

I can not refrain from recurring to the 

Religion in teachings of Comenius, since they so 
schools of 1 1 r 1 

Comenius strongly opposed the methods of educa- 
tion followed by those who, to-day, claim 
to be his disciples. James H. Blodgett says: 
* * Comenius, anticipating more modern leaders 
in the philosophy and the art of education, pre- 
pared an outHne of the Pansophic School about 
1650, in which the work of a complete education 
was divided for seven classes. The general school 
was to spend the first hour of the morning in 
hymns, Bible reading, and prayers."^ "Class 
III, the Atrial," we are told by the same writer, 
was to have the inscription, * Let no one enter who 
can not speak.* In this class the boys should 
begin to read the Bible. . . . The history of this 
class is the famous deeds of the Biblical narrative." 
Of Class IV we read: *'A special collection of 
hymns and psalms must be arranged for this class; 
also an epitome of the New Testament, which 
should comprise a continuous life of Christ and His 
apostles, compiled from the four Gospels. . . . 
The accessory study is Greek. . . . It is compara- 
tively easy to learn to read the New Testament 

■^ Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1896-97, vol. i, 
page 369. 



366 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

[in Greek], and this is the chief utility of the 
study." Bible study formed an important feature 
of the work of Class V, for concerning its work we 
read: "A Bible Manual, also, called the Gate of 
the Sanctuary, is to be placed in the pupils' hands. 
This is to contain the whole of Scripture history in 
the words of the Bible, but so digested that it may 
be read in one year." 

Class VII was theological; and the reader will 
readily note the difference between the course of 
instruction marked out for it by Comenius, and 
that suggested by Professor Hoffman for theolog- 
ical students in the twentieth century. * * Inscrip- 
tion over the door: ' Let no one enter who is 
irreligious. ' . . . The class book should be a work 
dealing with the last stage of wisdom on earth, 
that is to say, the communion of souls with God. 
Universal history should be studied, and in particu- 
lar the history of the church for whose sake the 
world exists. . . . The future minister must learn 
how to address a congregation, and should be 
taught the laws of sacred oratory." 

Let it be remembered that Comenius was a 
bishop of the Moravian Brethren, a denomination 
noted for its extensive missionary work, its missions 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATION PRACTICAL 367 

dotting the earth. Their activity in church work 
can readily be accounted for by their system of 
education. Any Protestant church which wishes 
to survive, and desires the spread of its principles, 
must see that its children are educated spiritually 
as well as mentally and physically. 
Christian ^^ ^^^ ^^^ brought to consider another 
education very important phase of education, — 
emphasizes the relation of mental to physical train- 
pra ica ^^^ False systems have ever exalted 
the former to the neglect of the latter. Christ 
combined the two, and educators from the seven- 
teenth century on have presented correct views on 
the subject. 

Locke begins his ** Thoughts on Education" with 
these words: *' A sound mind in a sound body is a 
short but full description of a happy state in this 
world." ''The attainment of this happy condi- 
tion," observes Painter, " is the end of education. 
... In his [Locke's] mind, the function of educa- 
tion was to form noble men well equipped for the 
duties of practical life. " ^ 

A PURE SOUL IN A SOUND BODY SHOULD PRE- 
CEDE STUDY OF MERE FACTS. Locke's ideas of edu- 
cation are thus described by Quick: ''His aim 

* " History of Education," page 217. 



368 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

was to give a boy a robust mind in a robust body. 
His body was to endure hardness, his reason was 
to teach him self-denial. But this result was to 
be brought about by leading, not driving him. He 
was to be trained, not for the university, but 
for the world. Good principles, good manners, 
and discretion were to be cared for first of all; 
intelligence and intellectual activity next; and 
actual knowledge last of all. . . . The prevalent 
drill in the grammar of the classical languages 
was to be abandoned, and the mother-tongue 
was to be carefully studied. ... In everything 
the part the pupil was to play in life was steadily 
to be kept in view." 

And yet to-day, when the editor of one of our 
magazines proposed that our university students 
discuss the question, * * What order of studies is 
best suited to fit the average man for his duties 
in the world of to-day .? " or, '* What is the relative - 
importance of the various branches of education 
in fitting a man to secure his own happiness and 
rendering him a useful citizen and neighbor.?" the 
president of Yale University replied: ''Some of 
the men hesitate to give the official sanction of 
the university to a debate on short notice on 



MATHEMATICS MADE PRACTICAL 369 

questions of which most of the contestants know 
very little. Why should not our university stu- 
dents know and choose the practical studies ? If 
they do not know them, why not?"^ 
Manual There are educators, however, who are 
training willing to break away from the conser- 
and mathe° vatism of the past, and who advocate 
mattes ^ change of methods in the elementary 
schools. Such are the thoughts presented by the 
superintendent of public instruction in the State 
of Michigan, in a manual issued in May, 1900. 
There is sound sense in the following paragraphs, 
which will appeal to all who consider the needs 
of a child's mind. He says: — 

** It is the duty of the schools to produce paral- 
lel growths of all the faculties, leaving the pupil 
free to swing out into the realm of choice with no 
distorted tastes or shortened powers. The train- 
ing of the hand ministers to this parallel devel- 
opment. 

' ' We remember when the sciences were taught 
wholly from the text. Later, the principles of 
Pestalozzi entered the class room, and we stood 
open-eyed and open-minded, as the truths of 
science were demonstrated with the proper appa- 

^See Cosmopolitan^ February, 1900. 
24 



3;o CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

ratus m the hands of the teacher. But to-day 
Froebel's idea has taken possession, and the pupil 
performs the experiment. It is his hand that 
creates the conditions; it is his eye that watches 
the changes, his hand that notes them. Science 
teaching has thus adopted the manual training 
idea; and such are the results that Latin, Greek, 
and mathematics are no longer considered as the 
only intellective subjects for college training. 

* ' What the manual training idea has done for 
science teaching, it will do for mathematics and 
other kindred subjects. The dissatisfaction among 
professional and business men regarding the teach- 
ing of practical things in our schools is wide- 
spread. This is especially true regarding arith- 
metic, penmanship, spelling, and language. Any- 
one who doubts this needs but to enter the busi- 
ness places of his own city and make inquiry. 
There is a well-grounded feehng that in the mas- 
tery of arithmetic is a discipline closely allied to 
that needed in the activities of life; and when a 
father discovers that his child of sixteen or seven- 
teen years has no idea of practical business ques- 
tions and little skill in analytical processes, he 
justly charges the school with inefficiency. The 



MATHEMATICS MADE PRACTICAL 371 

difficulty, however, is that the pupil has had no 
opportunity to sense arithmetic. To him measure- 
ments and values are indefinite ideas. He com- 
mits facts to memory, and bUndly tries to work 
out problems. If his memory and imagination 
are good, he stands well, and receives a high 
mark. But still the work is vague; it does not 
touch his life or experience; it has no meaning. 
Put that pupil into a manual-training school, — the 
boy in the shop, the girl in the kitchen [practical 
experience has demonstrated that the girl has a 
place in the shop also], — and at once mathemat- 
ical facts become distinct ideas. 

' * Step into the shop of a manual-training 
school [or step into the well-ordered kitchen], and 
observe the boy with a project before him. What 
are the steps through which his mind must bring 
him to the final perfection of the work. 

** First, he must give the project careful study. 

* * Second, he must design it and make a draw- 
ing of it. This at once puts mathematics into his 
hand as well as his head. He must use square, 
compass, try-square, and pencil. Exact measure- 
ments must be made, divisions and subdivisions 
calculated, lines carefully drawn. 



372 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

' ' Third, he must select material of proper di- 
mensions and fiber, and then must reflect how to 
apply it to the draught made so that there is 
no waste. 

* * Fourth, he must plane and saw to the line, 
correct and fit; in short, must create the project 
that has had existence in his mind and upon paper 
only. Then it is that his arithmetic begins to 
throb with life, his judgment to command, and his 
ethical sense to unfold." 

This is the testimony of teachers who have 
made a practical application of arithmetic and 
geometry in the carpenter shop. Children twelve 
and fourteen years of age solve problems in pro- 
portion, in square root, in measurements, and in 
denominate numbers, which baffle the skill of the 
ordinary high-school graduate. This, too, is a 
part of Christian education. Doubtless Christ him- 
self gained most of his mathematical knowledge 
at the carpenter's bench. 

"The most practical education," says Hiram 
Corson * * (but this, so-considered, pre-eminently 
practical age does not seem to know it), is the 
education of the spiritual man; for it is this, and 
not the education of the intellectual man, which 



ADVANTAGES OF THE COUNTRY 373 

is, must be (or Christianity has made a great mis- 
take), the basis of individual character, and to 
individual character . . . humanity ov^es its sus- 
tainment. " The proper combination, then, of 
religious training and practical hand work in teach- 
ing mathematics or language will develop stability 
of character, and this is the end and aim of Chris- 
tian education. 

There are, however, in this twentieth 
Carpentry 
not the century, various other ways of rendering 

only prac- education practical; and since these 
ttcal ways are a factor in the Christian train- 

ing of youth, they should receive atten- 
tion. God made no mistake when he gave to 
Adam the work of tilling the soil. Since the days 
of Eden, those men who have shunned the cities, 
and chosen instead to dwell in rural districts, have, 
as a rule, come closest to the heart of the Creator. 
The true way to study the sciences is to come in 
touch with Nature. 

For this, also, we have the example of 

Christ. * * In traininer His disciples, Tesus 
chose the ° r » j 

country chose to withdraw from the confusion of 

the city, to the quiet of the fields and 

hills, as more in harmony with the lessons of 



374 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

self-abnegation He desired to teach them. And 
during His ministry He loved to gather the people 
about Him under the blue heavens, on some grassy 
hillside, or on the beach beside the lake. Here, 
surrounded by the works of His own creation, He 
could turn the thoughts of His hearers from -the 
artificial to the natural. In the growth and devel- 
opment of nature were revealed the principles 
of His kingdom. As men should lift up their eyes 
to the hills of God, and behold the wonderful 
works of His hands, they could learn the precious 
lessons of divine truth. Christ's teaching would 
be repeated to them in the things of nature. . . . 
The things of nature take up the parables of our 
Lord, and repeat His counsels." 

The teacher who has a desire to ennoble the 
character of his pupils will seek a place where 
Nature in her silent language gives lessons which 
no human tongue can utter. Parents who desire 
the best good of their sons and daughters, will, 
when the light of Christian education dawns upon 
their minds, hasten into the country, that the 
youthful minds over which they are keeping guard 
may be influenced by the natural rather than by 
the artificial. 



FORM AND EDUCATION 375 

It is not surprising that the best edu- 

\^&lU6 of 

cators who have opened their minds to 
the farm in ' ^ 

education truth have taught that cultivation of the 

soil, with the training of the eye and the 
hand in the shop, should accompany mental disci- 
pline. Prof. James R. Buchanan, says: "Blessed 
is the farmer's boy. . . . The industrial feature, 
not limited to handicraft, but embracing all forms 
of useful exertion, is the essential basis of a true 
education; as it insures, if rightly conducted, a 
worthy character, a healthy constitution, a solid 
intellect, and a capacity for practical success; for it 
gives vigor to the entire brain, and a far better 
invigorating mental discipline than can ever be 
obtained from text-books. The boy who has con- 
structed a wagon, or a bureau, or raised a small 
crop, as instructed, has more independence of mind 
and originality than the one who has only studied 
text-books. The boys of Lancaster, Ohio, who 
gave half their time to useful industry, made better 
progress in school studies than the common school 
pupils who had their whole time for study, and at 
the same time presented a model of conduct in all 
respects unequaled in any non-working school in 
this country." ^^ 

^^ Arena ^ October, 1894. 



376 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

Close adherence to the text-book is the papal 
method of teaching, and is a necessary accompani- 
ment of prescribed courses, while the humanistic 
tendency is well developed. Christian schools, 
because of the truths they advocate, are forced to 
depart from the established order in the educational 
world, and their education is rendered practical by 
joining the farm and the school. 

This method of teaching is already followed in 
some places,' showing that that system so often 
designated Christian education is not a thing of 
recent birth, neither is it the product of some 
man's mind. Its principles have been made known 
from time to time, and these principles have been 
followed more or less carefully in all periods of the 
world's history. 

That the combining of soil-cultivation 
Gardens 3-^^ study is a practical thing, and not 
of Modern a mere theory, is attested by the 
Europe ^ords of United States Consul-General 
John Karel, who reports as follows concerning 
''School Gardens in Russia:" " In a good many 
countries of western Europe, especially in Ger- 
many, Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and 
partly in Sweden, the public village schools have 



SCHOOL GARDENS 377 

sections of land allotted to them, which are either 
devoted to the use of the teachers, who take the 
profits therefrom, or serve for the establishment 
of school gardens. School gardens in western 
Europe bear, in a certain measure, a scientific 
character. Children are made to carry out in 
them practically what they learn theoretically. 

* ' In Russia ... it was well known that 

School t n 1 

d ns in owners and peasants were m 

Russia great need of instruction in farming; con- 
sequently schools of all kinds were estab- 
lished by the ministry of agriculture throughout the 
country. . . . For the development of the garden- 
ing industry, schools were founded first in Penza, 
in Bessarabia, . . . and in 1 869 a school of garden- 
ing and viticulture was found at Nikitsk. The 
work of the Nikitsk school was divided as follows: 
During the winter semester there were three hours 
of lessons per day and four and one-half hours of 
practical study in the garden, vineyard, and in the 
cellar. During the summer semester the lessons 
in class lasted only one hour, or sometimes two 
hours, but the practical studies occupied daily six 
or even eight hours. "^^ 

11 Report of Commissioner of Education, 1897-98, vol. 2, pages 
1632, 1633. 



3;8 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

Teachers in these schools are enabled to support 
themselves at least partially from the sale of fruits, 
berries, vegetables, honey, etc., but this was not 
the chief inducement in starting school gardens. 
The writer last quoted continues: ''The desire to 
add something to the low salaries of the village 
school teachers, and, on the other hand, to acquaint 
as much as possible, not only children, but also 
grown-up people, with gardening, sericulture, and 
apiculture, has caused an' increase during the last 
ten years, in the number of school gardens, apia- 
ries, and silkworm hatcheries. In 1892 there 
were about two thousand school gardens in Russia. 
At the present time [1897] there are 7,521, with 
532 apiaries, and 372 silkworm hatcheries." 

* ' Mr. Mescherski, who is chief of one of the 
departments of agriculture, and one of the prin- 
cipal advocates of school gardens in Russia, has 
stated the object of school gardens and their signif- 
icance as follows : * ' School gardens . . . are of 
importance on the following grounds. (i) Hy- 
gienic, as being a place for physical labor in the 
open air, so necessary for the teacher and pupils. 
... (2) Scientific educational, as acquainting 
children vvith the life of useful plants, developing 



ENCOURAGE RURAL LIFE 379 

their minds by the study of nature, and promoting 
in the rising generation a regard for labor and a 
more moral and aesthetic sentiment concerning 
trees. (3) General economical . . . and (4) per- 
sonal economical," which refers to the support of 
the teacher. 

Christians ^^ ^^® Russian government, on the libera- 
should tion of its serfs and its crown peasants, 
encourage found it so greatly to its advantage to 
''"''^ ® establish school gardens, of what lasting 
benefit would they be to Christians ! Protestants, 
instead of crowding into the cities where the 
laboring man is subject to the trades unions, 
trusts, and monopolies, should seek for themselves 
a few acres of land, and should see that schools 
are established for the education of their children 
where the mechanical text-book grind is replaced 
by the study of God's will as revealed in His Word 
and works. Nature studies thus conducted, instead 
of developing doubt, will strengthen the faith of 
the pupil, and the students from such schools will 
be fitted for citizenship not only in the govern- 
ments of earth but in the Kingdom of God. This 
also is a part of the system of instruction known as 
Christian education. 



XVII 

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION (Continued) 

The nineteenth century has not been 

Education t i . . j i_ • u u j 

lacking m mmds which have e^rasped, 
defined by 

Pestalozzi ^* least in part, the principles of Chris- 
tian education. Thus writes Pestalozzi: 
* * Sound education stands before me symbolized 
by a tree planted near fertilizing waters. . . . 
In the new-born child are hidden those faculties 
which are to unfold during life. The individual and 
separate organs of his being form themselves 
gradually into an harmonic whole, and build up 
humanity in the image of God.''^ 

With this agrees Milton's definition of education. 
"The end, then, of learning," he says, ** is to repair 
the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know 
God aright, and out of that knowledge to love 
Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him, as we may 
the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, 
which being united to the heavenly grace of faiths 
makes up the highest perfection. " This is similar 

1 "History of Education," page i. 
380 



THE BIBLE AS AN EDUCATOR 3S1 

to the definition given by the author of ' * Chris- 
tian Education," that "the true object of educa- 
tion is to restore the image of God in the soul." 

Christian education, then, is a spiritual educa- 
tion. In this sense the words of Pestalozzi, at 
the burial of his wife, are pathetic but weighty 
with significance. Turning to the coffin, he said 
tenderly: *'We were shunned and despised by all; 
sickness and poverty bowed us down; and we ate 
dry bread with tears. What was it in those days 
of severe trial gave you and me strength to per- 
severe and not lose hope ? " Laying a copy of 
God's Word on her breast, he continued: ''From 
this source you and I drew courage and strength 
and peace. "^ 

Advocates of Christian education may to-day 

encounter the same sort of rebuff from the world; 

but God's Word stands as guide, expressing the 

principles to be followed by the educator. 

Charles W. Dabney, Jr., president of 

the University of Tennessee, in an ad- 
as an -^ 

educator dress gave utterance to these words. 

**The Bible is the best text-book of 

education, as of many other sciences. In it we 

* ISem, page 274. 



382 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

read where Paul tells Timothy, his * dearly beloved 
son in the faith,' that *all scripture is given by 
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.' No- 
where in literature or philosophy is there a better 
or clearer expression of the true purpose of edu- 
cation than this. The object of education is not 
pleasure, or comfort, or gain, though all these may 
and should result from it. The one true purpose 
in education is to prepare the man for * good works. ' 
It is a noble thing to develop a perfect soul, to 
thoroughly furnish a body, mind, and heart. . . . 
Character building, conscience forming, then, is 
the main object of education. The teacher dare 
not neglect character, nor the college to provide 
for its development. We must always and every- 
where, in every course and scheme of study, pro- 
vide those methods and agencies which shall 
develop the character of the pupil along with his 
other powers. How, then, shall we develop char- 
acter in our pupils ? What are the methods and the 
agencies for doing this ? This is the crucial ques- 
tion of this age, as of every age. To this question 



CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS NEEDED 383 

all the ages give but one answer, and that is Chris- 
tianity, The world has had many teachers of 
science, art, and philosophy, but only one teacher 
of righteousness, and He was Jesus Christ, the 
Son of God." 

The many teachers of science, art, and phi- 
losophy, have, by their systems of education, led 
men away from the knowledge of God, the wis- 
dom which is eternal life. If the education of 
Christ is to be accepted, as suggested by Pro- 
fessor Dabney, His word, the Bible, must be 
recognized as the Book of books, the guide in all 
investigation, the interpreter of all phenomena. 

Much is said concerning the moral edu- 
Christian cation which every child should receive. 
Parents realize that the boy or girl who 
grows to maturity with only a physical 
or intellectual education is either a pugilist or a fit 
subject for the penitentiary, and hence they insist 
that the spiritual nature should receive some atten- 
tion. But where is this spiritual education to be 
obtained .'* State schools have no right to give such 
training; indeed, they can not do it. True, they 
have attempted it, but it is a miserable failure. 
Protestants should no longer make the demand. 



384 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

The time has come for them to see that they 
should establish schools, whose object it is to de- 
velop character. These schools should receive 
support independent of the state; they should be 
free to follow methods entirely different from the 
formalism of the papal system; their course of in- 
struction should meet the individual needs of the 
pupils, and be of a character which will develop 
Christians. To accomplish such results, the Word 
of God must be taken from the dust, and placed in 
the curriculum, not as a mere reference book of 
Jewish antiquities, but, as it is in deed and in truth, 
the light whose rays encircle the world. * * The 
Holy Scriptures must be the Alpha and Omega of 
Christian schools," wrote Comenius. Christ must 
be the teacher. 

The men thus far quoted have followed the light 
which shone upon their pathway. To-day we may 
gather the scattered gems of truth left by them; 
but, better far, we may go direct to the Word 
itself, and the Spirit of truth will guide into the 
paths of Christian education. As taught by Froe- 
bel, ' * The spiritual and physical development do 
not go on separately in childhood, but the two are 
closely bound up with each other.*' 



MAN'S THREEFOLD NATURE 385 

The human being has a threefold nature, 
Man's __ ^-^Q physical, the mental, and the spir- 
itual; and Christian education so devel- 
nature 

ops these that they sustain the proper 
relation one to another. The spiritual nature was 
the controlling power in the man made in God's 
image. In the degeneration of the race, he lost 
his spiritual insight, and passed first to the intel- 
lectual plane, then to the physical. This is seen in 
the history before the flood. Eden life was a spir- 
itual existence; Adam's life after the fall was less 
spiritual, and gradually his descendants came to 
live on the mental plane. There were master 
minds in the antediluvian world. Men had no 
need of books, so strong was the memory and so 
keen the insight. Through further disobedience, 
through an education which strengthened reason 
rather than faith, men sank to the physical plane 
instead of rising to the spiritual, until in due time 
the earth was destroyed by water. 
Education ^^^ same planes of existence are distin- 
since the guishable in all ages since the flood, but 
time of Christ alone rose to the purely spiritual 
^ ^ level. Israel as a nation might have so 

lived had true educational methods been followed 
25 



386 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

Israel falling, the offer was made to the Christian 
church. Age by age that body has refused to live 
a spiritual life, or, accepting the proffered gift, has 
attempted to rise without complying with the nec- 
essary conditions, — absolute faith in God's Word 
and strict compHance with his commands. The 
Reformation again turned men's eyes toward a 
spiritual education, and American Protestants had 
the best opportunity ever offered man to return to 
the original design of the Creator. Failure is again 
the verdict of the recording angel. Time hastens 
on, and the last gospel message is going to the 
world; but before a people can be prepared for the 
setting up of Christ's kingdom, they must be edu- 
cated according to the principles of Christian edu- 
cation^ for this is the foundation of all government 
as well as of all religion. 

What is Christian education t Since its object is 
the training of a human being for life eternal, and 
that existence is a spiritual life, the spiritual must 
be the predominating feature of the education. 
When the spiritual leads, the intellectual and 
physical take their proper positions. The inner or 
spiritual man feeds only upon truth, absolute truth; 
not theory nor speculation, but truth. "Thy word 



THE TEST 387 

is truth." The Word of God must then be the 
basis of all Christian education, the science of sal- 
vation the central theme. 

Since God reveals his character in two 
The test 

ways, in his Word and in his works, 

the Bible must be the first book in Christian 
education, and the book of nature next. Many 
educators have seen the value of the book of na- 
ture, and to-day nature-study forms a large part 
of the course of instruction in all grades of schools. 
It may be asked, Is not this, then. Christian edu- 
cation } We reply, Does it restore in men the 
image of God t If so, it passes the test. But it 
can not be said to do this, and therefore it falls 
short. Wherein, then, lies the difBculty in mod- 
ern nature-teaching, or the sciences in general t 
Read some of our modern text-books in science. 
They readily reveal the answer. 

Youner's General Astronomy reads: 
Astron- ° "^ 

omy as ''Section 908. Origin of the Nebular 
taught de- Hypothesis. — Now this [the present 
nies the condition] is evidently a good ar- 
rangement for a planetary system, and 
therefore some have inferred that the Deity made 
it so, perfect from the first. But to one who 



388 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

considers the way in which other perfect works 
of nature usually come to perfection — their proc- 
esses of growth and development — this expla- 
nation seems improbable. It appears far more 
likely that the planetary system grew than that 
it was built outright. ... In its main idea that 
the solar system once existed as a nebulous mass, 
and has reached its present state as the result 
of a series of purely physical processes, it seems 
certain to prove correct, and it forms the foun- 
dation of all the current speculations upon the 
subject. 

'* Section 909. La Place's Theory. — {a) He 
supposed that at some past time, which may be 
taken as a starting point of our system's history, 
. . . the matter collected in the sun and planets 
was in the form of a nebula. {U) This nebula 
was a cloud of intensely heated gas, perhaps 
hotter, as he supposedy than the sun is now. {c) 
This nebula, under the action of its own gravi- 
tation^ assumed an approximately globular form, 
with a rotation around its axis," etc., etc. 

The student must decide whether he will base 
his study of the heavens and the earth — the study 
of astronomy, geography, and geology, as well as 



EVOLUTION IN ZOOLOGY 389 

zoology, and botany indirectly — on this hypothe- 
sis, which, we are told, ' ' forms the foundation 
of all current speculations upon the subject;" or 
whether he will turn from these reasonable expla- 
nations - for the existence of things, and take the 
plain Word of truth, which says, * ' By the Word 
of the Lord were the heavens made; " ** He spake 
and it was; he commanded and it stood fast," 
together with the explanation as given in Gene- 
sis and elsewhere in the Scriptures. 

Faith and finite reason face each other; the 
education of the world takes reason; Christian 
education is based upon faith in God's Word. 
Which will develop character } Why is it that 
7nodern science-study does not lead to God ? — 
In the evolutionary teaching of the nebu- 
lar HYPOTHESIS YOU HAVE ONE ANSWER. 

Picking up an ordinary text-book in zo- 

.-^ oloery, we read: ''The earliest member 
as taught ^-^ ' 

in zoology ^f the series directly leading up to the 
horse was eohippus, an older eocene 
form about as large as a fox, which had four well- 
developed toes and the rudiments of a fifth on 
each forefoot, and three toes behind. In later 
eocene beds appeared an animal of similar size, 



390 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

but with only four toes in front and three behind. 
In newer beds, i. e., lower miocene, are found 
the remains of mesohippus, which was as large 
as a sheep and had three toes and the splint of 
another in each forefoot. . . . The succeeding 
forms were still more horse-like."* Next they 
find a donkey-like animal, and later * ' a true equus, 
as large as the existing horse, appears just above 
the horizon, and the series is complete."* 

If the horse tribe has evolved from a fox-Uke 
animal, it is little wonder that men trace their 
origin to the monkey tribe; but those who wish 
God's character, take by faith the statement that 
♦*in the image of God created He him." 

Such theories form the basis for the generally 

adopted classification of the entire vegetable and 

animal worlds. Christian education demands new 

text-books, based upon the truths of God's Word. 

From Dana, the recognized authority on 

ecology, the following: sentences are 
origin of ^ t>j» & 

species quoted: •* Life commenced among plants, 

in seaweeds; and it ended in palms y 

oaksy elmsy the orangey rosey etc. It commenced 

'Packard's *« Brief Course," page 277, published by Henry 
Holt & Co., of New York. ^^ Marsh. 



EVOLUTION IN GEOLOGY 391 

among animals in lingulcs (mollusks standing on a 
stem like a plant), crinoidsy worms, and tribolites, 
and probably earlier in the simple systemless pro- 
tozoans; it ended in man.'' For this develop- 
ment, he says, "Time is long." 

In a paragraph on * ' Progress Always the Grad- 
ual Unfolding of a System," are the words: 
* * There were higher and lower species appearing 
through all the ages, but the successive populations 
were still, in their general range, of higher and 
higher grade; and thus the progress was ever up- 
ward. The type or plan of vegetation, and the 
four grand types or plans of animal life, the radi- 
ate, molluscan, articulate, and vertebrate, were 
each displayed under multitudes of tribes and 
species, rising in rank with the progress of time. 
... Its progress should be, as zoological history 
attests, \a development, an unfolding, an evolu- 
tion.'' 

In the study of this evolution in animal life, 
he says, ' ' The progress in the system of life is a 
progress in cephalization, " and he gives several 
illustrations, as the passage from tadpole to frog; 
from lobster to crab, from worm to insect, etc. 
Such teachers speak always of the evolution from 



392 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

the lower to the higher forms of life, but leave 
retrogression entirely out of their reckoning. 

To those who offer the Sacred Record in oppo- 
sition to his so-called geological proofs, Dana says: 
**The Biblical student finds, in the first chapter of 
Genesis, positive statement with regard to the 
creation of living beings. But these statements 
are often misunderstood ; for they really leave the 
question as to the operation of natural causes for 
the most part an open one, — as asserted by 
Augustine, among the Fathers of the church and 
by some Biblical interpreters of the present day. 
... In view of the whole subject, the following 
appears to be the conclusions most likely to be sus- 
tained by further research : The evolution of the 
system of life went forward through derivation of 
species from species^ according to usual methods, 
not yet clearly understood^ and with few occa- 
sions FOR SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION," etc. 

Thus have the truths in God's great lesson book 
of nature been misinterpreted. It was a step in 
the right direction when the mechanical drill of the 
classics was dropped, and nature studies substi- 
tuted; but God's Word must take its place as the 
interpreter of nature and natural phenomena, or 



EXALTATION OF DETAIL 393 

the theory of evolution is the natural result, and 
this will form no part of Christian education. 

Protestant parents, are your children learning 
to see in the visible things about them the em- 
blems of the invisible, even the eternal power and 
godhead ? If not, why do you not put them where 
they will ? This is their salvation. 
Unde I ■" ^^^ exaltation of detail and the beht- 
ing princi- tling of principles is a common error in 
pies neg- educational systems. This is seen in all 
lected departments of learning. Not only is it 

exemplified in the exaltation of the mental and the 
physical above the spiritual, but the same method 
is employed in the detail work of the class room. 
This is in essence papal education. Christian 
education requires teachers to reverse the order 
throughout the whole course of instruction. 

To illustrate the thought: There are a few fun- 
damental principles which govern the universe. 
Such is the statement of the truth, *' The love of 
Christ constraineth us," which contains within it 
the whole explanation of the force of gravity, 
adhesion, cohesion, molecular attraction, chemical 
affinity, human love, and the law of sex, and is 
therefore illustrated in physics, chemistry, miner- 



394 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

alogy, biology, — in fact, in all the sciences. 
Again the second great commandment, "Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," is the state- 
ment of a principle which underlies all history, 
civil government, and political and social science. 
If followed, it will solve all international difficul- 
ties, as well as prevent personal animosity; it will 
blot out the evils of society, breaking down the 
barrier between poverty and riches; trusts would 
never exist, trades unions would be unnecessary, 
and monopolies unknown, if the one law of 
Jehovah were only learned. Of how much greater 
value, then, is the study of such principles than all 
the theories which may be proposed by men for 
international arbitration, or all the laws which 
may be passed in legislative halls concerning 
the equal rights of men and the proper means 
of governing States, Territories, or acquired pos- 
sessions. 

But this is Christian education, and lessons 
such as this are learned only when the truth is 
written on the heart by the pen of the Spirit. It 
is thus that a spiritual education, the higher birth 
of which the Saviour spoke, rises above the educa- 
tion of the world as far as heaven is above the 



EXALTATION OF FACTS 395 

earth. When these and kindred principles are 
made the central thought, all the facts which the 
pupil may be able to learn in a lifetime, will but 
serve to impress the truth more firmly on his life. 
Deductions ^^^ ^^^ facts which it is possible for man 
from facts to gather in a lifetime, added to all that 
not always are gathered by generation after genera- 
correct ^-Qj^^ ^j,g 1^^^ illustrations of a few princi- 
ples. Modern teaching deals almost wholly with 
facts; it requires children, from the time they enter 
school until they are graduated, to heap together 
facts. Process is the great theme in mathematics; 
facts, facts, facts, are the things sought for in the 
whole realm of natural science. History is but the 
study of still more facts, and where generalizations 
or classifications are made, they are theories for- 
mulated from the facts gathered. But man is 
never able to collect all the facts; he is never sure 
that his conclusions have reached absolute truth. 
The truth of the matter is, the classifications thus 
formed are only partially correct, and the discovery 
of a few more facts overthrows the finespun theo- 
ries of the best of scientists. It is thus constantly 
in astronomy, in botany, in zoology, and in biology. 
Because of new discoveries, the physician of yes- 



396 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

terday is wholly wrong in the eyes of the physician 
of to-day. To-morrow the bright light of to-day 
will be superseded by some other luminary. This 
is the result of inductive reasoning based on sense 
perception. 

This thought is well expressed by Hinsdale, who 
says: ** We observe and register phenomena, clas- 
sify facts, deduce conclusions and laws, and build 
up systems; but in science and philosophy we 
return to the subject again and again; we seek to 
verify our facts and test our conclusions, and when 
we have finished, we are not sure, save in a limited 
sphere, of our results. Some of the best-known 
sciences have been largely reorganized within the 
last few years. We have the * new chemistry, ' 
the ' new astronomy, ' the ' new political economy, ' 
and even the * new mathematics. ' Particularly in 
the field of human conduct, where man's will is the 
governing faculty, we are often uncertain of our 
way and sometimes are wholly lost." ^ 
Sense '^^^ shifting foundation upon which such 

perception knowledge rests is well illustrated by the 
often tests which the human being is able to 

ncorrect ma^j^e ^j^h the organs of sense. Water 
of 98° is hot to the hand that has been accustomed 

6 " Jesus as a Teacher," page 48. 



IMPORTANCE OF PRINCIPLES 397 

to a temperature of 45°, but cool to the hand which 

is just taken from water of 1 1 2°. An orange is 

sweet to the man who has been eating a stronger 

acid, but sour to the palate accustomed to sugar. 

The eye which has been used in a dimly lighted 

room is dazzled by the noonday glare, and judging 

of the size of a star by sight we would not conceive 

it to be a sun. The knowledge gained by the 

senses is only partially true, — it is not absolute 

truth; and the scientific theories propounded by 

minds which have reasoned from these inaccurate 

data can not fail to fall short of absolute truth. It 

may be knowledge ; it is not wisdom. 

Christian education approaches nature 

from the opposite direction. With a 
substance, 
not theory "^i^^ open to receive truth, it grasps by 

faith the statement of a universal princi- 
ple. The spiritual law is the thing sought, and the 
corresponding physical law is compared with it. 
Once found, every fact which is learned, every 
observation made, but shows more clearly the 
working of that law in the spiritual world. For 
such teaching, faith is an indispensable attribute. 
Experiment is not discouraged, but strongly en- 
couraged; reason is not laid aside, but the mind is 



39^ CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

called upon to reason on subjects grander and 

nobler than any deductions which can possibly 

result from the opposite manner of approaching 

truth. 

This is the ideal in Christian education, the point 

toward which the Christian teacher is leading his 

pupils. In case of unbelief, or in dealing with the 

heathen, the mind must first be approached 

through the avenues of the senses, until the Spirit 

of God arouses the inner eye of faith. This is 

merely preliminary, and should not long continue. 

Children are not given credit for having the faith 

they really do possess, and are therefore held to 

the inductive method by educators long after their 

minds and hearts are capable of grasping truth, 

and when it would be found that the deductive 

method would produce a much more rapid growth 

of mental and spiritual power than is now seen. 

This suggests the qualifications necessary 

^^^ on the part of a teacher. Remembering 

that this education is of a spiritual na- 
teacner ^ 

ture, the teacher himself must be con- 
nected with truth by an unwavering faith. 

When Nicodemus, the representative of higher 
education in the schools of Jerusalem, interviewed 



THE PLACE OF PHYSIOLOGY 399 

Christ, the new Teacher who had appeared in their 
midst, and whose teaching was attended by a power 
unknown to the educators of the day, the learned 
man said, • ' Rabbi, we know Thou art a teacher 
sent of God." ''But how can these things be?" 
The heavenly Teacher outlined to him the secrets 
of His educational system, telling Nicodemus that 
it was not based on sight, but on faith; that the 
spiritual was first, and, when so made, the rest 
would follow. Then came the query, ' ' How can 
it be.?" To which Christ replied, "HI told 
you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall 
ye believe if I tell you heavenly things .'* " **Art 
thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these 
things.!*" 

In view of these thoughts, it is not strange that 
the study of the sciences in a Christian school will 
differ widely from the course offered in the same 
department of learning in an institution where the 
object of education is wholly different. 

Discarding the evolutionary theory which 
Physiology pgj^^g^^gg ^^le teaching of all institutions 

where education is not wholly based on 
science "^ 

the Word of God, man, created in the 
image of God, is recognized as the highest mani- 



400 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

festation of creative power. The life of God is 
the first study; that life, as manifested in man, is 
the next, and physiology takes its place as the cen- 
ter of all science-study. This is a study of life in 
all its manifestations, beginning with the spiritual, 
and extending to the mental and physical. Here, 
as elsewhere, the laws which govern the spiritual 
nature have their types in the other two natures; 
and when once the central truth of life, an abun- 
dance of life, is grasped, the study of physiology 
becomes not the study of dead forms, mere facts, 
but a soul-study, which includes the home of the 
inner man and all the machinery which the soul 
m.anipulates. Thus considered, from this center 
(physiology) extend rays, like the spokes of a 
wheel, each representing another science, until 
within that broad circle represented by these radii, 
are included all the physical as well as all the meta- 
physical sciences. 

It will be seen that this mode of correlating the 
sciences cures at once the mistake of the age, — 
the cramming system, — which results from a 
neglect of manual training and from the study of 
a multiplicity of books, crowded with facts which 
must be stored in the mind of the student. 



CORRELATION 401 

By placing physiology as the center of 

the circle, and correlating therewith all 
of sciences 

other sciences, another advantage arises, 

for that circle includes within itself the languages 
and mathematics. These latter are but helps 
in the study of the thought-bearing subjects, — 
the Bible and the sciences, — and instead of 
being studied as primary subjects, should be used 
as a means to an end. Reading, writing, spelling, 
grammar, rhetoric, and literature, and mathematics, 
from arithmetic to general geometry and calculus, 
are but means of expressing truths gained in the 
study of the revealed Word and the book of na- 
ture. The simplicity of the system will appeal to the 
mind of any educator, for it is a plan long sought 
for. The one thing lacking among those who have 
experimented with such methods has been the cen- 
tral subject, God's Word. Having truth as the basis 
for the correlation, the problem, so far as methods 
are concerned, is practically solved. 

The great and pressing need is for teachers who 
can execute the plan. No narrow mind will be 
equal to the task. Again, as a system of true edu- 
cation is approached, is seen the exalted position to 
which those who teach are called. 
26 



402 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

Before passing the subject of physiology 

1 lie DAStS 

of every ^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ consider the meaning of the 

educa. expression that this subject ' ' should be 

tional fj^^ basis of every educational effort.'' 

effort 

Text-book study of physiology, it is 

clear, can not cover this requirement. The fact is 
that book-study is but a small part of Christian 
education. True education is life, and he who 
learns much must live much. The food eaten, the 
manner of clothing the body, the study, exercise, 
mental habits, physical habits, manual training, in 
fact, every phase of life is a part of the study of 
physiology and hygiene, and these subjects must 
one and all receive due consideration by the 
Christian educator. 

Manual Manual training is becoming popular in 
training many of our city schools, but the work 
and edu- offered in a Christian school will differ 
from that of the worldly school in this,- — 
the latter is training the hand or the eye only, the 
former is building character by giving a trade that 
enables the student to be self-supporting and inde- 
pendent. In that the aims are different, the 
methods must differ, although the matter taught 
may in many cases be identical. 



NEED OF STUDY-BOOKS 403 

Healthful living is receiving attention in 

®^^ " many schools. The Christian school, 
diet and 
dress while teaching the same subject, will 

have as its object a preparation for 
eternal life. The subject, taught without faith, will 
bring only increased physical and mental activity. 
The spiritual nature can be reached alone by that 
education which is based on faith. 

Simply a casual investigation of the 

. . subiect of Christian education reveals 

books •' 

the "need of books for the guidance of 
teachers who undertake to direct the growth of the 
child. With proper study-books, based upon the 
eternal principles of truth revealed in the Scrip- 
tures, the work which is now in its infancy would 
make much more rapid and substantial progress. 
Parents who sense the responsibility 
resting upon them in the rearing of 
children for the kingdom of heaven are 
anxious to know when and where the principles of 
Christian education can be carried out. The 
beauty of the system is nowhere more vividly pro- 
trayed than in the recognition which it gives to the 
home and the duty of parents toward their children 
in the matter of education. 



404 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

In spite of the fact that much is said relative to 
the importance of educating for the state, the words 
of Herbert Spencer give a clear idea of the home 
as the center of the true system. He says: "As 
the family comes before the state in order of time 
— as the bringing up of children is possible before 
the state exists, or when it has ceased to be, 
whereas the state is rendered possible only by the 
bringing up of children, it follows that the duties 
of the parent demand closer attention than those of 
the citizen." The plan of Chrfstian education 
goes a little farther, and recognizing the earthly 
family as a type of the heavenly, places the parents 
in God's place to the young children; hence the 
home should be the only school and ' ' the parents 
should be the only teachers of their children until 
they have reached eight or ten years of age." 
Lessons * * '^^^ mother should find time to culti- 
for the vate in herself and in her children a love 
home for the beautiful buds and opening 

scnoo flowers. . . . The only schoolroom for 

children from eight to ten years of age should be 
in the open air, amid the opening flowers and 
nature's beautiful scenery. And their only text- 
book should be the treasures of nature." 



CHRISTIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 40$ 

With such a training, the first ten years 

the child should develop a strong body 
school ^^^ ^ strong mind. He should then be 

able to spend the next five or six years 
under the instruction of a consecrated Christian 
teacher in an elementary school, where teacher 
and parents may co-operate. The threefold nature 
must be developed so that when the age of man- 
hood or womanhood is reached, strength of char- 
acter has also been gained. 

The youth should then continue his 

, . mental culture in some industrial school, 
industrial 

school located in the country, where there is 
freedom from the evils of city life, and 
where the rapidly developing physical nature can 
be correctly guided into lines of practical duties 
which will fit him for real life. In the meantime, 
mental culture and spiritual training are continued, 
for character is being formed for eternity. 
Traininir ^^^ young man or woman of twenty or 
school for twenty-two should be prepared to select 
Christian a life-work, and the special training 
wor ers needgfj can be received in a training 
school, which in Christian education will be for 
Christian workers. Such a school will be neces- 



406 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

sary; for the education thus outhned, extending 
from infancy over twenty years, can not fail to 
develop a character which chooses Christian work 
as the life occupation. A short training in a 
higher institution, which in character is a school 
of the prophets, should so round out the nature 
already forming that the young person goes out 
an ambassador for Christ, willing to be used in 
any capacity by the Commander of the heavenly 
host, whether it be on the farm, at the carpenter's 
bench, or in the pulpit; for his soul is knit to the 
King of heaven, as was David's to Jonathan's. 
Such a student is prepared for active service, 
either on earth or in the kingdom of our God; for 
he is one with the Father and his Son. 

' ' Comenius divided the first twenty-four years 
of life into four periods, to each of which he would 
assign a special school, thus : — 

"I. For infancy, the school should be the 
mother's knee. 

''2. For childhood the school should be the 
vernacular school. 

*'3. For boyhood, the Latin school or gym- 
nasium. 

' * 4. For youth, the university and travel. 



SHOULD PROTESTANTS EDUCATE 407 

** A mother should exist in every house, a ver- 
nacular school in every hamlet and village, a gym- 
nasium in every city, and a university in every 
kingdom or in every province. . . . The mother 
and the vernacular school embrace all the young 
of both sexes. The Latin school gives a more 
thorough education to those who aspire higher 
than the workshop; while the university trains up 
the teachers and the learned men of the future, 
that our churches, schools, and states may never 
lack suitable leaders." 

In the system known as Christian education the 
division is about the same, the years of student 
life extending perhaps to thirty instead of twenty- 
four, with this division: the first ten years are 
spent in the home school; from ten to fifteen in 
the church school; from fifteen to twenty in the 
industrial school, and the years from twenty to 
twenty-five or even thirty are devoted to study 
and active work in the training school for workers. 
Should The time now is when those who are 
Protes= true Protestants will demand Christian 

° * education, and when no sacrifice will be 

educate? 

considered too great for the accomplish- 
ment of that object. The prophecy of Zechariah, 



4o8 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

recorded in the ninth chapter, gives the words of 
God concerning the contest to take place near the 
close of time between the sons of Greece and the 
sons of Zion. * ' Turn you to the stronghold, ye 
prisoners of hope; even to-day do I declare that 
I will render double unto thee; when I have bent 
Judah for Me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and 

RAISED UP THY SONS, O ZioU, AGAINST THY SONS, 

O Greece." 

Greece is recognized in the Scriptures as emble- 
matic of worldly wisdom,^ but by that wisdom the 
world knew not God; in fact, by that wisdom the 
world was led away from God. God will, then, 
raise up the sons of Zion, the representatives of 
His wisdom — the divine philosophy — against the 
sons of Greece, or the students of the wisdom of 
the world; and in the final conflict, when truth 
wins, it will be evident that those who are num- 
bered with the victors have forsaken the wisdom 
of Greece for the wisdom of God. It is not 
theory, but the most solemn fact, that the prep- 
aration for a life with God demands that we and 
our children receive a far different education than 
has been offered in the past. If we wish the 
highest culture, if we long for soul development, 

^ I Corinthians I, 



THE LOSS OF CHILDREN 409 

our education must be spiritual in nature; we must 
leave the low, turbid waters of the valley for the 
snow waters of Lebanon. This is Christian edu- 
cation. 

Protestants to-day see their children slipping 
from the fold. Every inducement in the way of 
entertainments, form, ceremony, and oratory is 
used to attract the youth to the church, but still 
the world allures them. Ministers are beginning 
to search for the reason, and are attributing it to 
the character of the education now given in our 
schools; in saying this, they strike at the root of 
the trouble. Protestantism is dying; the form 
of godhness, which denies the power thereof, is 
spreading its dark mantle over the earth. It is in 
vain that we point to stately edifices or noted 
divines; if we can not recognize the difficulty, it 
but proves that we are ourselves under the cloud, 
and recovery is all but impossible. 

We talk of the spread of Christianity; we give 
of our m.eans for the conversion of the heathen, 
while our children perish within our very homes. 
The spirit and power of Elias, which was to accom- 
pany the preaching of the kingdom of Christ, was 
** tp turn the hearts of the fathers to the children," 



4IO CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

Cries the prophet Joel, ' * Gather the children^ and 
those that suck the breast. . . . Let the priests, 
the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch 
and the altar, and let them say. Spare Thy people, 
O Lord, and give not Thine heritage [the children] 
to reproach, that the heathen should rule over 
them." 

Ministers, fathers, mothers, look to the welfare 
of your children, or the cause of Protestantism 
is lost in America. Take up your first, your all- 
important duty, and give your children a Christian 
education, and instead of a decline in church mem- 
bership as now reported, there will be an increase; 
instead of formaHsm, there will be life. This will 
be the means of bringing the heathen to your door, 
and to a knowledge of the gospel. 

^ * Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold; 
all these gather themselves together, and come to 
thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely 
clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, 
and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. For thy 
waste and thy desolate places and the land of thy 
destruction, shall even now be too narrow by rea- 
son of the inhabitants. . . . The children which 
thou shalt havcy after thou hast lost the other^ 



GENUINE PROTESTANTISM DYING 41 1 

shall say again in thine ears, the place is too 
strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell. 
Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath 
begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, 
and am desolate ? . . . Who hath brought up 
these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where 
had they been ? Thus saith the Lord God, Be- 
hold ! I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, and 
set up My standard to the people; and they shall 
bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters 
shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings 
shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy 
nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with 
their faces toward the earth, and lick up the dust 
of thy feet. . . . For I will contend with him that 
contendeth with thee, and I will save thy 

CHILDREN." ^ 

How will He save the children ? — * * All thy 

CHILDREN SHALL BE TAUGHT OF THE LORD." 

When will the Gentiles come bringing their 
children to supply the places of those now 
lost.!* — When Protestants can show to the Gen- 
tiles that they have a system of education which 
is free from the errors now so prevalent; when 
they can teach the Gentiles the truth. 
'Isa. 49 : 18-25. 



412 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

*'Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; 
break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that 
didst not travail with child: for more are the 
children of the desolate than the children of the 
married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place 
of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the cur- 
tains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy 
cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt 
break forth on the right hand and on the left; 
and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles."^ 

When shall these things be ? The same chapter 
of Isaiah answers. When * ' all thy children shall 
be taught of the Lord. " When Protestants edu- 
cate according to the principles of true Protestant- 
ism, then will the words of the same prophet, 
recorded in the sixtieth chapter, be fulfilled. 
* ' Arise, be enlightened, for thy light cometh. . . . 
The Gentiles shall come to thy light and kings to 
the brightness of thy rising. . . . Thy sons shall 
come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed 
at thy side."^ 

Christ came, fulfilling in every particular the 
prophecies quoted. ''As thou hast sent Me into 
the world, even so have I also sent them into the 
world," are the words of Christ to His church. As 

^Isa. 54: 1-3. ^Isa. 60: 1-4, mar. 



ARISE, BE ENLIGHTENED 413 

Christ was a teacher, so that church which does 
the work which the Christian church must do, will 
have a system of education, and its members will 
be educators indeed. 

Of Christ as a teacher it is written, *' He raised 
Himself above all others whom millions to-day 
regard as their grandest teachers. Buddha, Con- 
fucius, Mohammed, to say nothing of Greek and 
Roman sages, are not worthy to be compared with 
Christ." Says Paroz: '' Jesus Christ, in founding 
a new religion, has laid the foundation of a new 
education in the bosom of humanity." 

" In lowliness and humility," writes Dr. SchafT, 
"in the form of a servant as to the flesh, yet 
effulgent with divine glory, the Saviour came 
forth from a despised corner of the earth; de- 
stroyed the power of evil in our nature; realized 
in His spotless life, and in His sufferings, the 
highest idea of virtue and piety, lifted the world 
with His pierced hands out of its distress; reconciled 
men to God, and gave a^new direction to the whole 
current of history." 

It is the education which He taught, which was 
His very life even in the courts of heaven, which 
Protestants are now entreated to accept. "To- 



414 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your 
hearts." 

Where are the Protestants who are true to the 
name ? Where are the schools which will teach 
the things of God ? Where are the teachers who 
forsake secular methods, as did the Reformers, to 
become teachers for Christ ? 

Earth with its inhabitants is to the heart of God 
the most precious part of the creation. As a 
recreant child draws harder on the parent's sym- 
pathy, so the world, because of the sinfulness of 
sin, has brought heaven and earth in touch. The 
universe sees streaming from the throne rays . of 
light and love, pointing to the one spot in all 
creation where sin abounds. They tell the story 
of the cross. The perfect harmony which forms 
the ''music of the spheres," which was marred 
when man fell, will again pervade all space when 
the plan of salvation is complete, and our earth 
again joins in the great chorus of the sons of God. 
Truth -^^^ ^^^ thousand years creation has 
revealed groaned, waiting for our redemption. 
in the The completion of the plan draws nigh, 
as ays ^^^ £^^ ^^^ ^^^^ struggle everything is 

now assuming an intensity never before seen. 



COME TO THE LIVING WATERS 415 

Principles of truth, for centuries hidden, or known 
only in part, will again shine forth in their original 
splendor. The wisdom of the ages will be mani- 
fest in the closing era of the world's history. True, 
this wisdom will often appear but '* foolishness " in 
the eyes of those who oppose truth; but spiritual 
things are spiritually discerned, and the Spirit of 
the Holy One will once more brood over the whole 
earth, taking up its abode in those hearts which 
beat in unison with the strains of heaven. Chris- 
tian education binds earth to heaven. The wise 
in heart will return to the God-given system 
of education, choosing "the fountains of living 
waters" instead of hewing ''them out cisterns, 
broken cisterns that can hold no water."" 

i^' Jer. 2 : 13. 



AUTHORITIES REFERRED TO OR 
QUOTED IN THIS BOOK 

Buckley, editor of Christian Advocate. 

Boone, "Education in the United States." 

BOK, editor of Ladies^ Hojne Journal. 

D'AUBIGNE, "History of the Reformation." 

Dana, "Geology." 

Draper, "Intellectual Development of Europe." 

Dabney, president of the University of Tennessee. 

Emerson, "Representative Men." 

FiSKE, "Beginnings of New England." 

Fenton, "Epistles of Paul." 

Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." 

Hinsdale, "Jesus as a Teacher." 

Harris, U. S. Commissioner of Education. 

Harper, president of Chicago University. 

Hartman, "Religion or No ReHgion in Education." 

Karel, U. S. Consul-General to Russia. 

Laurie, "Rise and Constitution of Universities." 

MOSHEIM, "Church History." 

Mescherski, of the Department of Agriculture of Russia. 

Neander, "Church History." 

Painter, "History of Education." 

Ranke, "History of the Popes." 

RosENKRANz, "Philosophy of Education." 

Stump, "Life of Melancthon." 

Thompson, "Footprints of the Jesuits." 

27 417 



4i8 



INDEX OF AUTHORITIES 



Abbott, Lyman. 
Agricola. 
Buchanan, 
bushnell. 

COMENIUS. 
DiTTES. 

Drummond. 

Froebel. 

Gressinger. 

Hoffman, Frank S. 

Jefferson. 

Luther. 



Locke. 

Melancthon. 

Milton. 

Montaigne. 

Newton, Dr. 

Pestalozzi. 

Quick. 

Renchlin. 

Schmidt. 

Spencer, 

Wallace, Mrs. Lew. 

Young. 



INDEX 



Abraham, call of, 55; his faith, 56; call to teach, 57; preparation to 

teach, 57, 59, 63; failure to believe, 60, 61; school of, 63, 64, 67, 
Agricola, his part in Reformation, 221; his idea of a teacher, 222; 

his idea of education, 223, 
America, discovery of, 219; Jesuits as teachers in, 281, 285; object 

of Jesuit schools in, 283 ; education in, 293-338. 
Angels the first teachers, 16. 
Arabs, as educators, 200-202; their learning suppressed by papacy, 

203. 
Astronomy taught in Eden, 27; as taught at present denies the 

Bible, 387-389- 
Athens, education in, loo. 
Authorities quoted, 417. 

Beast, its formation, 176; image to, 176. 

Bernard, Henry, his work in behalf of public schools, 319. 

Bible as a text-book in Jewish schools, 78; Plato a rival of, 102; its 
place in education, iii, 381-383, 3S7; the text-book of Christ, 
134; the text-book of early Christians, 142; its power over 
youth, 145; versus logic, 152; teaching of advised by Reuchlin, 
224; taught in Jesuit schools, 279; words of Luther concerning, 
291; Harvard founded to teach, 299, 302; departure from in 
education, 321; in school of Comenius, 365; denied by present 
science teaching, 387-393. 

Bok, Edward, on cramming system, 323-325. 

Botany, taught in Eden, 27. 

Cain, chose reason instead of faith, 43. 

Catholic schools in America, 335; see also "papacy." 

Character developed in worldly school, 44; of students during Mid- 
dle Ages, 204, 210; of students in modern universities, 210; of 
students after Reformation, 263; the object of education, 232, 
382; valued by John Locke, 345-347. 

Christian education, a search for wisdom, 14; relation of to Refor- 
mation, 3, 4; based on faith, 39, 397; almost wiped out before 
the flood, 49, 50; its meaning to early Christians, 140; feared 
by the pagans, 147; God's three calls to, 168; failure of Reform- 
ers to carry forward, 246; how lost, 255; versus papal, 286; 
unites with papal ideas, 309; effect on churches of neglecting, 
328; principles of, etc., 339-415; never without a representative 

419 



420 INDEX 

on earth, 341; opposed to *• cramming system," 351; based on 
faith, 354; emphasizes practical, 367; a spiritual education, 
381-384; emphasizes principles, 393-396; manual training a 
part of, 402; a system of, 403-407; see also ♦' education." 

Christ, birth of, 120; early education of, 121; spiritual education of, 
122; recognizes his life work, 123; with the rabbis, 124; his 
attitude toward manual training, 125; preparation for his work, 
126; as a teacher, 127; lived what he taught, 128; educational 
principles of, 130-132; his pupils, 132; teachers in the country, 
134; his text-books, 135; emphasized the practical, 135; result 
of his educational system, 136-138; commits the work of educa- 
tion to the church, 138-140; the representative of true educa- 
tion, 170; author of Christian education, 340; taught from 
nature, 373, 374. 

Church schools of Jews, 76; of early Christians, 146; should follow 
home school, 405. 

Cities, origin of, 45 ; effect of life in on children, 46; Enoch chose 
not to live in, 46; Abraham called from, 55; life in, contrasted 
with country life, 64, 66, 146, 373, 379; avoided by Christ, 134. 

Classics in education, 109-113, 342, 343; study of prior to Reforma- 
tion, 216-218; in Harvard, 303; demanded by the universities, 
307; fruit of in America, 313; John Locke on, 345. 

Clement, school of, 163-167; the first higher critic, 164; meets 
opposition, 166; gives up his faith, 167. 

Comenius, [326; on Latin and practical education, 344; on nature- 
study, 352; on number of studies, 353 ; religion in school of, 365. 

Congregationalists, education among, 295; their schools. Harvard 
and Yale, 297-303. 

Correlation, 400-402. 

Country life versus city life, 64, 145, 379; chosen by Jesus, 134^ 

373- 
Courses of study, their origin, 204-209; in Sturm's school, 261; in 

Harvard, 302; multiplied, 322. 
Cramming system, 259, 323-325; papal in principle, 347; Montaigne 

on, 348; Mrs. Wallace on, 348-351; prevented by nature study> 

352; prevented by correlation, 400. 
Creation, the, 22-26; mind its highest form, 24, 25. 

Dark Ages, schools of, 180; origin of, 184; unfavorable to medical 

study, 194, 199. 
Darwinism in education, 114-116. 
Death, a result of sin, 36; result of false education, 40, 67; result 

of eating of the tree of knowledge, 50. 
Dana on origin of species, 390-392. 
Degrees, their origin, 204-209; a papal mark, 334. 
Diet, its relation to education, 38; its place in Christian education, 

403- 



INDEX 421 

Discipline weakens in universities, 263. 

Doubt, effects of, 32; its place in modern education, 353-360; its 

place in theology, 354; the Socratic method, 356, 357; not 

highest means of knowledge, 363. 

Early Christians, education among, 139-155; early training among, 
142; home education among, 143; divided in opinion, 153; 
gradually accept pagan methods, 154. 

Eck opposes Reformation in education, 244. 

Eden, school in, 22-37; home in, 26; subjects taught in school of, 27- 
29; methods of education in, 29, 30. 

Education, birth of rival systems, 20, 21 ; the two systems of, 37, 38, 
40, 43; should be based on faith, 39; life result of true, 40; 
death result of false, 40; first murder a result of wrong methods 
in, 44; affects government, 44; before the flood, 45, 46; wrong 
methods in cause of flood, 49 ; false one the cause of removal of 
God's Spirit, 50, 51; starts anew after flood, 52; decline in, 54, 
55; in Israel, 68-91; system of for Israel, 72; its threefold 
nature, 82; spiritual made prominent in Jewish schools, 82; 
at same time spiritual and practical, 88; reforms in among 
the Jews, 90; among the Spartans, 100; in Athens, 100; 
influence of Plato in, loi-iii; offered by Jesus, 130-132; 
among early Christians, 139-155; in homes of early Christians, 
143; division of opinion concerning, 153; becomes papal, 158- 
183; its three representatives, 170; controlled by monks, 179; 
propagated by Arabs, 200-202; reform in needed, 212; the 
secret of papal power, 214; Reformation and, 221; favored by 
Protestantism, 225 ; Luther's plans for, 231; Melancthon's in- 
fluence in, 235-247; in Wittemberg, 239; Melancthon on, 240; 
effect of Protestantism on, 252; its part in the Reformation, 
255; return to papal methods in, 258; cramming system in, 
259) 323-325,347; Sturm's influence on modern, 262; controlled 
by the Jesuits, 264-287; papal or Christian ? 286; among Puri- 
tans, 294; among Congregationalists, 295 ; in the United States, 
293-338; effect on republicanism, 297; at Harvard, 297-302; at 
Yale, 303; during colonial days, 305; during Revolutionary 
period, 306; given over to the state by all the churches, 312- 
315; effects of modern, 327; elective system in, 329; means 
character development, 332; union of with state, 335; Catholic 
in America, 335; doubt in modern, 353-360; place of farm in, 
375; defined by Pestalozzi, 380; should be threefold, 385; since 
the time of Christ, 385-387; neglect of principles in, 393; see 
also "Christian Education." 

Egyptian education, 83, 85, 96, loi; a symbol of darkness, 92; its 
licentiousness, 95; its so-called wisdom, 99. 

Elective system, 329 ; affords freedom, 330-332. 



422 INDEX 

England, Jesuit schools in, 280; she loses her golden opportunity^ 
290. 

Enoch, 43; chooses not to live in cities, 46, 

Episcopalians and education, 290; their college in America, 304. 

Erasmus, a forerunner of the Reformation, 225. 

Evolution, its origin, 45; attempts to account for effects of flood, 48; 
the basis of Platonism, 105; in education, 113; in education of 
America, 322; taught in astronomy, 387-389; in zoology, 389. 

Faith supplanted by reason, 18, 41, 48, 97, 168, 171, 174, 182, 385; 
a lesson in, 31 ; immortal life its result, 36; education based on, 
39) 397; in education after the flood, 52; of Abraham, 56; 
strengthened by trial, 58; how taught, 59; few learn to live by^ 
70; learned by Israel, 86; education by, lost, 255; highest 
means of education, 363^. 

Farm, the, as an educating factor, 375. 

Finance in Jesuit schools, 279. 

Flood, schools before, 45, 46; warning of, rejected by reason, 47; 
cause of, 49-51. 

France, Jesuit schools in, 278, 

Froebel, 326; on complete education, 384. 

Gardens, value of in schools, 376-378. 

Government affected by education, 44, 45, 297; influenced by stu- 
dents, 211. 

Greece, education in, loi; a symbol of worldly wisdom, 408. 

Germany establishes Protestant schools, 223 ; Jesuit schools in, 273, 
278. 

Geography as taught in papal schools, 190, 191. 

Harvard, founding of, 297-299; object, 299-301; raising of fund 
for, 301; early course of study in, 302; assumes name of uni- 
versity, 310; science in, 322. 

Healing, true, 194. 

Health, reform in accompanies reform in education, 90; attention 
should be given to, 403. 

Heidelberg, Jesuit schools in, 275. 

Higher criticism, introduced by Clement, 164; Origen's part in, 172; 
is Platonism, 173; modern, 360. 

Home, in Eden, 26; its place in education of early Christians, 143; 
its place in Christian education, 403. 

Industrial schools; see "preparatory schools," 

Isaac, 62. 

Israel, education in, 68-91; a peculiar people, 68; chosen to teach, 

71; church schools among, 76; studies in schools of, 77-80; 

effect of their educational system, 81; spiritual education in 



INDEX 423 

schools of, 82; deliverance from worldly education, 86, 87; 
reforms in their educational system, 90; education among, 
prior to Christ, 118. 

Jesus, see Christ. 

Jesuits, influence in education, 264-287 ; their course of instruction, 
266; effect of their educational system, 267; their object, 271; 
methods in education, 270, 342; value of their methods, 272; 
spread of their schools, 273, 276; in Germany, 273; in Vienna, 
274; at Heidelberg, 275; preparatory schools of, 276; reputa-^ 
tion of their schools, 277; in France, 278; in England, 280; in 
America, 281; in South America, 282; in the United States, 
282, 285; their schools kill Protestantism, 290, 337. 

John the Baptist, his coming, 119; education of, 120. 

Knowledge gained by experiment, 35; comes through the senses, 
39. 397- 

Latin, in papal schools, 186; its value to the papacy, 188; Ratich 
on, 343; Comenius on, 344. 

Life, the result of faith, 36; comes through true education, 40, 
67; true science of, 40, 41. 

Locke, John, on classics, 345; on choice of a teacher, 346. 

Logic versus Scriptures, 152; in papal schools, 189, 200. 

Lot, chooses a worldly school, 65, 66; result to him of wrong educa- 
tion, 67. 

Loyola, his influence in education, 264. 

Lucifer in the heavenly school, 16-21. See Satan also. 

Luther, his part in reformation of education, 227-247; as a teacher, 
227; his plea for schools, 228; his educational plans, 231; his 
ideas of teachers, 232; recognized the value of nature-study, 
234; one with Melancthon, 237; his students, 240; his words 
concerning the Bible, 291, 

Mann, Horace, father of the public school, 317-319. 

Manual training, Christ's attitude toward, 125; correlated with 
mathematics, 369-373; its value in education, 375, 402; in farm 
and garden, 375-378- 

Mathematics made practical, 369-373. 

Melancthon in education, 235-247; one with Luther, 237; his stu- 
dents, 240; views of education, 240; prepares text-books, 241. 

Medical study, effect of Dark Ages upon, 194-196; corrupted dur- 
ing Dark Ages, 199. 

Memory work, prominent in papal schools, 186, 187, 342; after 
Reformation, 259. 

Meteorology, 27, 28. 



424 INDEX 

Mind, the highest form of creation, 24, 25; effect of disobedience 

on, 34; of man before the flood, 42. 
Mineralogy, 27, 28. 

Ministers, trained at Harvard, 299-301. 
Missionaries, children rightly trained will become, 143. 
Modern reformers, 326; oppose too much language study, 343. 
Monks, their system of education, 178; control education, 179. 
Montaigne on cramming system, 348. 
Murder, a result of education by reason, 44. 
Music, in schools of Israel, 80, 
Mysticism, 177. 

Nature, result of studying if God is not taken into account, 52, 53; 

the first study of Christ, 121 ; taught from by Christ, 134, 

314; Luther on study of, 234; study of in modern schools, 327; 

study of prevents "cramming," 352; its study based on doubt, 

354; study of not to supersede the Bible, 387. 
Noah a teacher of righteousness, 46, 47. 

Origen, his birth and education, 169; his reasons for studying phi- 
losophy, 169, 170; represents mixture of pagan and Christian 
ideas, 170; his system of education, 170-175; a higher critic, 
172. 

Pagans, education of, 92-116; education of was self -worship, 93; 
classics in education of, 1 09-1 12; their attitude -toward Christian 
education, 147. 

Papacy, human origin of, 36, 44, 154-162; produced by mixture of 
educational systems, 72, 73; as seen in school of Clement, 163- 
167; to be overthrown only by Christian education, 183; its 
tyranny over thought, 184; primary schools of, 185; emphasized 
memory work, 186, 187; taught Latin, 186; text-books of, 188; 
studies in schools of, 188; geography as taught in schools of, 
190; manner of meeting opposition, 199; medicine as taught by, 
199; suppresses Arabian schools, 203; grants degrees, 208; why 
it wishes to control education, 211, 212; secret of its power, 
214; relation to Arabian learning, 219; dropped in education, 
238; a return to, 258, 269; aided in United States by Jesuit 
schools, 285; its influence as seen in Harvard, 303, 310; principles 
of in William and Mary College, 301; tendency to revert to, 
308; union of with Christian principles, 309; degrees a mark of, 
334; consists in union of church and state, 335; mechanical 
teaching a mark of, 344; "cramming " one of its methods, 347; 
doubt a characteristic of, 355, 

Pelagianism, its origin, 181. 

Penance, its origin, 181, 

Pestalozzi, 326; defines education, 380. 



INDEX 425 

Philosophy, origin of false, 45; false, 98, 104; personified by Plato, 
no. 

Physics, 27, 28. 

Physicians, treatment during Dark Ages, 195-197. 

Physical degeneracy the result of sin, 38, 39. 

Physical plane as opposed to spiritual, 43, 44, 69, 83-85, 385. 

Physiology, in Jewish schools, 79; during Dark Ages, 198; the central 
science, 399, 402. 

Plato, his work as an educator. loi-iii; result of adopting his phi- 
losophy in a Christian school, 1 50-152; Origen studied, 170; per- 
sonifies heathen philosophy, 170. 

Platonism the source of higher criticism, 173. 

Poetry in Jewish schools, 80. 

Preface, i. 

Prenatal influence, instructions concerning, 76. 

Preparatory schools, those of Melancthon, 242; of Jesuits, 276; dur- 
ing Revolutionary period, 306; standard for set by colleges, 320; 
should follow church school, 405. 

Protestantism favorable to education, 225; effect on education, 251; 
fails to see importance of education, 255; result of her failure to 
educate, 264; intrusts her children to Jesuits, 277; Jesuits seek 
to destroy, 283; papal or Christian education for ? 286; born of 
Reformation, 288; killed by Jesuit schools, 290-337; in American 
schools, 292; weakens with coming of false education, 308; 
must educate her children, 407-415. 

Public schools of Julian, 148-150; in the United States, 317-319. 

Puritans, their attitude toward education, 294; leave England, 292 ; 
in New England, 396. 

Ratich on Latin, 343. 

Reason supplants faith, 18, 33, 41, 97, 168, 171, 174, 182, 385; 

accepted by Cain, 43; rejected warning of the flood, 47; result 

of exalting, 362-364. 
Reformation, its relation to education, 3, 4; an educational reform, 

214-247; classics in, 216-218; Agricola a forerunner of, 220; 

science during, 220; education and, 221-247; part of Erasmus 

in, 224; its meaning in education, 234; Reuchlin, a forerunner 

of, 224; opposed in education, 243; part of in education, 254; 

results of, 248-251; reaction after, 268. 
Republicanism, its origin, 288; affected by education, 297; weakened 

by wrong education, 308. 
Reuchlin, a forerunner of Reformation, 224. 
Rome, English college at, 281. 
Russia, school gardens of, 376-378. 

Satan, his teaching in Eden, 30-36. See Lucifer. 
Saxony school plan, 244. 



426 INDEX 

Senses, education of not to be trusted, 34, 48, 396; the source of 
knowledge not wisdom, 39 ; cultivation of among pagans, 97. 

School, in heaven, 15-21; in Eden, 22-37; character developed in 
worldly, 44; before flood, 45, 46; of Abraham, 63, 64; location 
for, 66; Sturm's 260-263. 

Schools of prophets, 77; of early Christians, 146, 147; gradually 
become pagan, 156-183; of the Dark Ages, 180; cling to papal 
methods, 192; reform needed from these methods, 193, 212; 
Arabian, 200-203; Luther's plea for, 228; strength to church, 
230; established in Germany, 233; of Melancthon, 242; Prot- 
estant, 253; Sturm's influence on modern, 263; of Jesuits, 266- 
287; methods in Jesuit, 270; ask state support, 311, 332-334; 
of Catholics in America, 335; of Comenius, 365; gardens in 
connection with, 376-378, 

Scholasticism kills education, 256; in American schools, 309, 312. 

Science, rejects warning of flood, 47; taught in Harvard, 322; with- 
out Bible produces infidels, 327; modern study of, 353, 387- 
393; physiology the central, 399; correlation of, 401. 

Sin, physical death its result, 36; results in physical degeneracy, 

38, 39- 
Spirit of God the source of wisdom, 39; withdrawn because of 

wrong education, 50, 51; the true teacher, 340, 
Spiritual plane of living opposed to physical, 43, 44, 52, 69, 385; 

reached by faith, 70; Israel to live on, 71; chosen by Christ, 

123, 126. 
Spartans, their educational system, 100; Socratic method, 356; 

accepted by ministers, 360. 
Solomon, his wisdom, 87. 

State schools ask support of, 311; assumes responsibility of educa- 
tion, 313-315; should it support schools? 332-334; unites with 

education, 335; can not teach religion, 383. 
Students, their influence on government and society, 211; character 

of Luther's, 240; character of after Reformation, 263. 
Sturm, his school, 260-263; influence on modern schools, 262. 

Teacher, Christ the true, 18, 19, 127; Noah as, 46; Abraham as, 57; 

Luther as, 227; Holy Spirit the true, 340; qualifications of 

Christian, 398. 
Teachers, the first ones angels, 16; a choice made of, 19, 20; Israel 

chosen as, 71; Luther's idea of, 232; how Locke would choose, 

346. 
Teaching, divine method of, 29; depends upon life, 128. 
Temptation, the first, 30-35; of Christ, 127. 
Text-books, Bible as chief one, 78, 381-383; Christ used Bible as 

first one, 134; Bible the chief one used by early Christians, 

142; used by papacy, 188; a reform needed in, 193; prepared 



INDEX 427 

by Melancthon, 241; Luther opposes too many, 245; too close 

adherence to, 376; need of, 403. 
Theology, modern method of study in, 354. 
Trade, learned by all Jewish youths, 82. 
Training-schools among early Christians, 146; need of at present 

time, 405. 
Tree of life, a symbol of true education, 40, 50, 
Tree of knowledge, a symbol of false education, 40; brought 

death, 50. 

United States, Jesuit schools in, 282; education in, 293-315. 
Vienna, Jesuit schools in, 274. 

William and Mary College, papal principles in, 304. 

Wisdom, its source, 9-14; comes through God's Spirit, 39; Solo- 
mon's, 87; of the Egyptians, 99; differs from knowledge, 397. 

Wittemberg, Melancthon in, 236, 238; education at, 239. 

Worldly schools, character developed in, 44; chosen by Lot, 64; 
death the result of education in, 67; in Egypt, 83-85. 

Yale College, 303. 

Zoology, taught in Eden, 27 ; false teaching of, 389. 



Cbc Dg$ire of J\m 

By MRS. E. G. WHITE. 



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600D FORM AND CORISTIAN 
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